Partner or Lover?
by IcBlue-Dmoness
Summary: DISCONTINUED. Z&K and H&I are now together, but are facing some problems with the 'higher ups' and Azuma. Zero's having dreams that might be a little more than just regular nightmares. Can his friends help him through this? Read to find out! R&R!
1. 01 Candidates Repairing

**Partners or Lovers – Part I**

**_By: IcBlue_Dmoness_**__

Rating: PG- 13 for violence and sexual situations 

_Summary: _Zero and Kizna are trying to get Hiead and Ikhny together, but there rest of the gang is trying to get Kizna and Zero together...how will they ever survive this madness without Azuma finding out?

The gang tries to get Zero and Kizna together by placing them in various situations where they are in close proximity to each other to… get their hormones going, for a lack of a better phrase…

_Disclaimer: _I do not, unfortunately, own anything of Candidate For Goddess, except for a few tapes.  

*Note: The candidates and repairers are around the age of fifteen in this story.

Partners or Lovers Chapter 1: **Candidates Repairing**

It was the same old routine at G.O.A. - the pilots trained and the repairers helped them with their training.

  
"Zero, behind you!" yelled Kizna, as she stood up from her seat, sending her chair flying backwards. It was a one on one battle with the pro- ings. Unfortunately, Kizna was too late. The opponent pro-ings elbow came crashing into Zero's back. 

Zero's eyes widened in shock as he went forward stumbling. "Ahh!" screamed Zero as he got hit from behind. "How DARE you! You're _going_ to _pay_ for that!" Zero said as he whipped around to face his opponent. He charged at the other pro- ing that Hiead was in. 

The two masses of metal crashed together as Hiead and Zero charged for one another. Both candidates felt the force of the impact at once and they stumbled backwards. Neither could get their balance back and both pro-ings consequently went tumbling towards the floor. 

  
After a minute of waiting, Azuma's stoic tone was heard echoing through the battle room. "Ok, battle over. Zero and Hiead were dis- abled at the same time - today's battle is a draw." 

Zero and Hiead left the field and walked back into the control room. Zero ran up towards the other three candidates- Clay, Roose and Yamagi. He ran past Kizna- who wanted to congratulate him on a well-fought battle- and totally missed Kizna muttering something along the lines of an ungrateful partner as she turned towards her friends. The group of four candidates (excluding Hiead) headed towards the doors that led to the halls. 

  
"Everyone, come here for a second before you leave." Hiead was shooting glares towards Zero as he ran back to where Azuma was standing; he was expecting to win the battle. He continued speaking. "Candidates and Repairers need to learn to work together. What I saw out there today was pitiful! Repairers gaping at their candidates, some yelling at them," he gave a pointed look at Kizna, "and others sitting with a stupid look on their face. _None of you_ were useful out there… NONE! You need to learn how to be a _TEAM_! From now on, candidates are going with their repairers and _both_ will learn more about their partner. Understand?"

There was a chorus of 'yeas' before he continued again. 

"And you weaklings can start by helping the repairers fix your pro- ings."

  
Hiead was leaning against the wall, while glaring at anyone who dared to make eye- contact with him. "Humph! Like I'm going to work with some weakling. Repairers are here to repair and I'm here to become a pilot! Not a repairer," he muttered under his breath, as he turned and walked out of the room.

  
Zero just stared at the retreating back of Hiead. "Hey! Where are you going Hiead? You can't get off the hook that fast! It isn't fair!" screamed Zero. Unfortunately for Kizna, she was standing right beside Zero and got a whole ear full of his screaming. Kizna cringed and whacked Zero over the head, with the back of her hand, telling him to be quieter. 

  
Azuma finally took notice of the retreating Hiead and said in a terse voice, "Candidate 87, you walk out of this room, you will not be able to use the pro- ing for a week, and you will be running a hundred laps around G.O.A.," he said, trying to intimidate the candidate. He took a breath and then said in a deathly cold voice, "Now get your ass back here." 

  
Hiead just sent a cold, unnerving glare to Azuma and walked out of the room. Yamagi just shook his head at Hiead's usual behavior. Azuma groaned and then shouted, "Now get to work Candidates!" He turned to Ikhny and said, "Ikhny, you can have the whole week to repair the pro- ing since it seems that your partner will not be coming back for a while."

"Yes sir," said Ikhny in a shaky voice, as she walked out of the room, heading to the pro- ing hanger to fix the pro- ing. 

  
As Ikhny walked into the hanger, she saw the remaining candidates helping their repairers (grudgingly I might add) with the repairs for the pro- ings. "Are you sure you will be all right Ikhny?" asked Kizna.

  
"Yes, do not worry Kizna. I have all week to fix this so it will be fine," said Ikhny meekly.

  
"If you need any help I'll come. Ok?"

  
"Ok. Thank you." Ikhny walked over to Hiead's pro-ing and started repairing.

  
"Kizna! Can you please start repairing the pro-ing cause I really want to make it in time for dinner!" whined Zero.

  
"All right, all right, I'm onto it. Just quit complaining," said Kizna, as she stood near the pro-ings arm and started repairing some circuits in the metal arm. "Hey Zero, can you hand me the wrench?"

  
"Um, what does it look like?" asked Zero as he rubbed the back of his head.

  
"It looks like this," said Kizna as she made a shape with one of her hands - since the other hand was holding some wires in place - with out looking up.

  
"Umm… I- I can't find it." 

"Ohh…" Kizna started to whine. "You're useless. Did you know that?" said Kizna as she started to turn around, making sure the wires were still in the place she wanted them. She started walking towards Zero. She saw him bent over a toolbox, looking for the desired item. Unfortunately, Kizna did not see the lone bolt, which was on the ground and slipped on it. Apparently, while looking for the wrench, Zero knocked over a few loose screws, inadvertently causing Kizna to fall. She landed hard on her back and she let out a hiss of pain. Zero did not hear her though, and continued looking for the wrench in the toolbox that was on a table near by. 

  
After a few seconds, Zero finally found the wrench and stood back up. He turned around, lightly arching his back to loosen up his already strained muscles. He walked over to the pro-ing, subconsciously wondering where Kizna was. "Ok, I Fou-" He was interrupted when his foot tripped over something soft yet sturdy, and he braced himself for the fall to come. He let out a light scream, screwed his eyes shut and waited for the cold floor to meet his face. Lucky for him, Zero tripped over a bemused Kizna and fell on top of her.

  
Clay looked over his shoulder to see what was going on- he heard Zero's scream. "Very interesting," he said to himself, as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger. 

"Huh?" a confused Saki asked, as she came to look at what Clay was looking at, instead of helping her.

  
"Yes, it's very interesting. Now quit staring and help me with this Clay," she said in a reprimanding tone. However, all the while, she too was glancing over at Zero and Kizna. 

  
"Oh right. Here, you will need the blue wire," said Clay, his attention moving back onto his pro-ing once again. 

  
With Roose and Wreka, poor Roose was trying to wiggle his way out of the new work situation, but Wreka would hear no excuses. The blue haired repairer thought that this was the only chance that she would have to get a day off from repairing, and tried to convince Roose to do the work, but like previously stated, Roose was willing to try anything to get out of work. 

  
"Oh Roose, can you please fix this?" said Wreka as she tried to get away from doing the work. She conveniently forgot the word "help."

  
"You know I'd love to help you out, but I don't know a thing about fixing this," said Roose, grinning sheepishly.

'_Damn it! And to think I could get away from work. It looks like I'll have to do some repairing today. But at least I have help for it,'_ thought Wreka as she started repairing, making sure Roose at least _helped_ her.

  
On the pro- ing besides Roose's, Tukasa led Yamagi up to the gigantic mass of metal. "Yamagi, you ARE going to HELP me FIX this right?" she said, looking a bit too intimidating. 

  
"Uhhh… sure…" said Yamagi as he tried not to get too close to her.

  
----

  
Kizna turned crimson at the site of Zero lying on top of her. Zero blinked a few times, trying to figure out what happened and for the time being, he just stuttered. After a moment of silence, Kizna asked, "Zero, can you get off me?" as her face turned as red as a tomato.

  
"Yea," Zero choked out, still in a daze, but his body did not respond to what he was saying. He was trying to figure out what was keeping him from moving. He shook his head trying to get the hundred and one thoughts that he should _not_ have about his repairer out of his head. His face turned red at one particular thought. Zero finally regained control of his body and his hormones and scrambled to get off his repairer. 

"Um… Here's the wrench you asked for," he said, handing the wrench to Kizna, after helping her off the floor.

  
"Thanks," replied Kizna as she went back to the spot that she was occupying previously beside the giant mass of metal. As she continued to work, the same scene replayed in her head repeatedly. 

  
Time went by, and soon Zero and Kizna were the only one's left in the repairing room. "Come on… aren't you done yet?" Zero whined. 

"Well, I would have been done sooner if you hadn't damaged the pro- ing so badly in your fight with Hiead," Kizna admonished.

  
"It was not my fault. If at all possible, I would like to get out of here before dinner finishes," Zero said in a slightly cold tone. 

"Yea? Well I do too! If you can help me out, then maybe it will go a bit faster… Besides, I'm almost done. Just wait a few more minutes."  Zero let out a sigh, leaned back on the railing, and waited for Kizna. After five dreadful minutes, he could not wait any longer and walked up to her.

  
"Are you done yet? Cause I'm going to leave without you." 

"Ok, ok! Keep your pants on Zero. Wait…" She made a few quick repairs, wiped her hands on a cloth she found near by and said, "Ok all done." 

"Great!" Zero exclaimed. He placed both his hands on Kizna's hips, and pulled her away from the pro-ing, only stopping when they were a good ten feet away from the metallic mass. 

"Zero! Let go!" Kizna said as a blush crept up onto her face. Zero let go and let her regain her balance. Once she did, he grabbed her hand, ran out of the repairing room- shutting off the lights on the way- and ran to the mess hall to get dinner. 

They finally made it and Zero let go of her arm in shock. "It's closed!" His eyes widened in realization. "AAHHH!! I'm going to die of starvation!"  He placed both his hands on his cheeks and dropped his jaw down for more emphasis.  Kizna raised her eyebrows when she saw his face. 

"Oh god… Zero, you should really take acting lessons before you try to act," said Kizna as she hit him lightly on the head again, rolling her eyes. "Come on, I know a place where there's some food. Sometimes we go there if we miss lunch when repairing, because we do not know how long it will take for us to repair things sometimes." With that said, Kizna dragged Zero behind her as she made her way to the recreation room.

  
Zero grumbled behind her. "Oi! Let go of my hair!" he said, kicking and screaming the whole way there.

They finally arrived at the recreation room. Kizna opened the door and turned the lights on. "It's almost lights out, so we better hurry up and eat fast." 

"Yea… just get me the food," said Zero. 

"You know, you can work on your manners as well as working on your zero- gravity phobia," Kizna said while glaring at Zero.

  
She reached behind a shelf and got a bag of chips and some other food. At the sight of all the food, Zero's eyes started sparkling. "Oh my god! I never knew they had such food here! And they give us that smelly crap for lunch and dinner!" he made some choking noises before diving into the bag of chips. 

Kizna rolled her eyes, as she looked over towards Zero. She got the privilege of seeing him dive into a bag of chips. She shook her head in disgust. _'Zero will always be Zero.'_

They sat in silence and at their food quietly. There wasn't much to say since Zero was stuffing his face with food.

  
After ten minutes, Kizna got up and told Zero it was time to go. "It's almost lights out Zero. We better head back."

"All right," replied Zero taking another chip from the bag and putting it back from where Kizna retrieved it.

  
They both started heading back to their rooms, talking when they heard a computerized voice echo throughout G.O.A. informing them that lights out will be in five minutes. "Come on Zero. I don't want to be stranded in the dark when the lights go off," said Kizna, trying to make Zero walk faster.

  
All of a sudden, there was this big crash, and G.O.A. shook on impact. "What was that?" screamed Zero as he ran towards a near by window to see what was going on. "I think the goddesses are in another fight with victim," said Zero, getting excited.

  
A senior candidate was walking by at that moment, and told the two that they should be getting back to their quarters because it was not safe in the halls. As soon as the senior turned to the next hall, another crash was sent through G.O.A. and Kizna grabbed onto Zero's arm to regain her balance. 

"Eep! I think we should head back to the rooms Zero. Like he said, I don't think it's safe out here," she said in a commanding voice.

  
"Aw… but-… oww! What was that for?" said Zero as he felt Kizna's foot collide with his shin. 

"Because I know you want to stay out here, but it's not safe," she said without a hint of remorse, as she held onto Zero's arm half dragging half pulling him to his quarters.

  
"Hey! Let go! I can walk for my self you know," said Zero realizing that he was being dragged towards his room. Kizna sighed, let go of his arm and let him stand up. By that time, it was lights out as all the lights in the hall way turned off, except for the emergency lights. "Hey! Why did the lights go off at a time like this?"

  
"Zero, its lights out remember?" said Kizna shaking her head. "Come on." _'I can't believe he forgot it was lights out already! Sheesh, what a short term memory this guy has…_' She grabbed Zero's hand and made her way towards their assigned quarters. Zero blushed slightly as she wrapped her warm hands around his arm and brought it to her chest. 

For a second he watched her as the light from Zeon reflected off her face, making her face light up instantly. Then all off a sudden, Zero blinked and shook the thought about his repairer out of his head and, as he followed the pink haired girl towards his quarters, he replaced that thought with one on how the goddesses were fairing against their enemy- victim.


	2. 02 Observations

Partner or Lover? Chapter 2: Observations 

  
_(Rewritten: 1/10/03)_

  
Zero entered his quarters and was greeted by a 'humph' and a 'hello'. Hiead turned his back on Zero as he walked in, and continued to change his clothes. Clay on the other hand was very inquiring and asked Zero where he had been.

  
  
"Clay, just go to sleep. I'm really tired." Said a yawning Zero.  
  


  
"Fine but I'll get it out of you tomorrow." 

"Can you two just shut up?!" said a growling Hiead.

"Whatever, just go to sleep." With a wave of his hand, Zero fell into a light slumber. Hiead just 'humped' again and soon followed Zero into a land of dreams…  
  
  
Kizna sighed as she walked back to her quarters after she had to literally drag Zero back to his sleeping quarters. She shook her head at the thought of Zero. _'Man, I have to do everything don't I? I have to look after him and myself too don't I? Gosh...what will I ever do with that boy?!'_ she sighed again as she pushed the door that led into her quarters.

  
  
Ikhny heard the door creak slightly and knew someone had come in. She slid her glasses on as she peered around the dark room for the intruder.  
  


  
"Oh, hey Kizna. It's just you." Said Ikhny, looking very relived.

  
  
"Sorry if I woke you. Is everyone asleep?" asked Kizna looking around the darkened room. "I had a bit of trouble getting Zero back to his quarters again." 

Ikhny just giggled at her friend. "Well I'm tired so if u don't mind I'm going to bed now. Good night Ikhny." Said Kizna as she collapsed on her bed, instantly falling asleep without changing her clothes.

  
  
"Good night Kizna" whispered Ikhny into the darkness, as she too fell asleep.  
  


  
***The next morning*  
  
**

  
Saki woke up and stretched for a bit before getting out of bed. She slowly walked to the bathroom and took a shower before deciding to wake the others up.  Once she put on her clothes, she wrapped a towel around her wet hair.  She made her way back into the room where the other two girls were sleeping.  She looked up at the clock that was above the door and nearly screamed.

  
"YOU TWO! WAKE UP!! It's almost 8:00! Azuma said we have to be in the battle room by 8!" screamed Saki before grabbing the hair dryer and drying her hair. Kizna slowly opened her eyes, the screaming waking her up.  She looked around through heavy eyelids, seeing only Saki awake and hair drying her hair.  Kizna turned her head to the right and saw Ikhny fast asleep.  

  
  
"Saki, what's going on?  What was that horrid noise that woke me up?" asked a confused Kizna.

Saki glared at Kizna.  "That would be me, yelling at you two to get up.  Kizna look at the clock.  Then you'll find out why I was asking you to get up." Said Saki, as she turned back towards the mirror and continued hair drying her hair.  

  
Then all of a sudden, there was a loud scream through the girls' quarter.  Kizna's scream could be heard two rooms away and consequently woke the other three repairers who were sleeping in the room next to Kizna's.  Instantly, all the girls were awake.

  
  
"What's wrong Kizna? Why were you screaming?" asked Ikhny as she looked for her glasses.

  
  
"LOOK AT THE TIME!! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!" screamed Kizna as she jumped out of bed and rushed to the showers. Ikhny finally found her glasses and slipped them on.  She glanced at the clock, her eyes widening when her brain registered the time.  She scrambled out of bed and ran to the room next door.  

"You guys, get up now!" the usually quiet girl hollered.  

"What's wrong with you Ikhny?" Wreka asked, lifting an eyebrow.  Ikhny frowned and pointed at the clock above the door.  The two other girls looked at the time and ran to get ready too.  
  


  
"AHH!! Where's my shirt! Tukasa, did u take it!?!" asked a furious Wreka, as she threw her clothes over her head while looking through her dresser for the lost shirt.  
  


  
"Nani? Why would I take your shirt? It doesn't even fit me!" said the quiet and reserved girl, who at this moment was running around the room trying to get ready. Once the girls were ready, they rushed out of their respective rooms. They finally made it to the battle room and surprisingly, all the boys were there before any of the girls had arrived.  It was usually the boys, particularly Clay and Zero, who were never on time.  

  
  
Right after the girls entered, Azuma came in and the door closed behind him. "You girls got lucky today seeing that if u didn't make it in time, you would have had to run 50 laps around GOA." Said Azuma, chuckling to him self after seeing the looks on the girls' faces. "All right lets get started. Now, Yamagi, you're pairing up with Roose and going against Zero and Clay today."  
  


  
The four boys got into their pro- ings and went onto the battlefield. "You ready to go down Yamagi?" asked Zero, as he got into position. Clay followed suit and prepared to battle. As Clay and Roose got ready, Zero and Yamagi charged for each other. Soon after, Roose attacked Clay and ended up knocking him out or disabling his pro-ing, if that's what you want to call it.  
  


  
"Clay, you baka!!" yelled Saki, as she helped Clay get out of his pro-ing once it came back inside. Now it was just Zero against Yamagi and Roose.

  
  
"All right! I can take you both down!" screamed Zero as he charged for Yamagi as Roose attacked from behind. 

"Zero, don't get so cocky!"  Said Kizna in a scolding manner.  "Watch out, Roose is behind you."

Zero let out a scream as he charged for Yamagi, taking no notice of Roose.  Once Zero was in kicking range of Yamagi, he brought his left foot off the ground and connected it with the side of Yamagi's pro-ing.  Zero's kick made Yamagi loose his balance and the purple haired boy fell to the side.  

"You're done for Yamagi!"  Zero said in a haughty voice.  Before he could attack again, Yamagi activated a defensive force- field.  When Zero released a punch that was intended to finish off Yamagi, Zero's arm hit the force- field, rebounded, and his whole body was propelled through the air and he landed flat on his back on the hard ground.  

Zero groaned in pain, but nevertheless, got up with the same vigor.  He pulled himself off the ground and fixed Yamagi with a glare.  "That was cheap…" Zero mumbled while rubbing his arm.  Once he saw Yamagi off the ground and armed with a beam rifle, ready to attack, Zero started moving.  He flew to the right just in time to avoid Yamagi's attack.  

_'It looks like Yamagi's trigger happy today…'_ Zero thought as he once again, avoided Yamagi's attack.  Zero ran around Yamagi and hid behind a big boulder.  Since it was a mountainous terrain, he used the rocks and boulders to his advantage.  Once Zero thought it was safe enough to come out from behind the boulder, he took a look at where he thought Yamagi was and caught sight of Roose instead.  A light bulb went off in Zero's head and he shot off towards Roose.  

Zero shot off the ground and flew behind Roose.  Luckily, Roose did not see Zero's shadow and took no notice of him.  Once Zero was behind Roose, Zero slid his arms around Roose and twisted his arms back.  Roose screamed in pain and tried to squirm his way out of Zero's hold.  Roose's screaming caught Yamagi's attention and he whipped around.  Yamagi ran towards Zero, with a power blade in one hand, ready to attack.  He pulled his arm back, then plunged it into what he thought was Zero's pro-ing.  When he stepped back from the scene, he realized he disabled the wrong pro-ing.  

"ROOSE! You idiot!!"  Yamagi screamed.  Zero just laughed. 

"Don't worry Yamagi.  Roose couldn't move.  I moved for him and put him in your path."  Zero explained, grinning like a Cheshire cat.                

"Roose is disabled."  Azuma said.  Wreka just frowned.    

Yamagi's eyes widened and his anger towards Roose went to Zero.  Once again, Yamagi tried to attack Zero head on but his anger was blinding him.  Yamagi heard his repairer's voice through his pro-ing.  "Yamagi, don't let your anger cloud your judgement…"  Tsukasa warned.  

_'That sounded like it was out of a storybook or something.'_ Yamagi thought as he chose to ignore what she was saying.  He continued to throw punch after punch at Zero but only managed to hit the air every time.  Zero finally decided to go to the offensive side and took out his power blade.  With the blade in his right hand, Zero ran towards Yamagi, letting out an animalistic scream.  Yamagi was heading towards Zero when he saw his opponent ready to attack.  

Yamagi panicked and tried to stop his body and dodge the attack.  But it was too much for his pro-ing to handle.  Yamagi, once he got his body to stop propelling forward, tried to move out of the way soon after, but it was too late.  Zero pulled his arm back when he was standing in front of Yamagi.  Zero heard Kizna's voice fill his pro-ing.  "I'm rerouting all power to the power blade."  He heard her say.  He nodded in agreement.  He bent down slightly, and then rammed the blade into the chest of the other pro-ing.  The circuits were fried and tiny pieces flew everywhere.       

  
  
"Yamagi is disabled." Azuma said in a monotonous voice. _'Hum… Candidate 88 has some potential to become a pilot.'_ He thought as he watched Zero more closely. 

  
"YEAH!! I TOLD YOU I'D BEAT YOU!!" yelled Zero as he jumped up and down in excitement. All three boys returned back inside as Zero jumped up and down happily. Kizna looked over to Zero and grinned. _'Still as childish as ever, but I can't blame him. He did win!'_ said Kizna cheering for herself mentally.

  
  
"All right, you all know what to do. I have some business to take care of now, so get started on repairing. The next pro- ing battle is day after tomorrow." Said Azuma as he walked out the doors.

  
  
Zero frowned and stopped jumping.  "Do you think it has to do with the Goddesses?"  He asked to no one in particular.  

"What are you talking about Zero?"  Clay asked, coming to Zero's side.  

"Azuma said he had something to take care off.   Do you think it has anything to do with the Goddesses?"  Zero asked once again.  

"Don't bother about it.  It's Azuma's business.  Let him deal with it."  Clay said with a 'that's-final' tone.  

The four candidates followed the repairers into the pro- ing hanger to fix the pro-ings. Lucky for Clay, he didn't have any damage on his pro- ing since he was knocked out immediately. Ikhny continued to work on Hiead's pro- ing seeing that it was almost un- repairable, by the time the battle between Zero and Hiead was over yesterday.  
  


  
"Kizna..." whined Zero. "Can we go eat now?  All that battling made me hungry."

  
  
"Are you CRAZY? We just got here, now quit complaining and give me a hand. It won't take long if you help me, cause thank god you didn't do much damage to your pro- ing." Said Kizna looking over the pro- ing again.  "Though I still think you could have prevented hitting the force field."  Kizna mumbled to herself.  

  
  
Zero took no notice of her mumbling.  "All right, I'll help you." Said Zero, walking up to the pro- ing. "What do I do?" Kizna just shook her head in defeat.

  
Since there was not much repairing needed for Clay's pro-ing, both Clay and his repairer were waiting on the side of the hanger.  "Hey Clay, do you think Kizna and Zero would make a cute couple?" Saki asked out of the blue.  

"Where did that come from?" 

"Just answer the question." 

  
Clay just pushed up his glasses in response. "Well, if you observe both sides of their relationship, and the pro's and con's of them getting together, then I guess you can say they do make a 'cute couple'." Said Clay as he stared at the 'cute couple' as Saki called it.  
  


  
Tsukasa overheard Saki and Clay's conversation. "What are you two talking about?" asked Tsukasa as she gave them a weird glance.  Saki walked over to Yamagi's pro-ing and stood beside Tsukasa.  "I was just asking what Clay thought about Kizna and Zero as a couple."  Saki said.

"But they're not a couple."  Tsukasa pointed out.  

"I know… but there was this saying… if two people fight a lot, the more the care about each other… something like that."  Saki said, scratching her head, her eyebrows knitted together in deep thought.  "Anyways, that's what gave me the idea.  They sure do fight a lot, but one can see they really care about each other."  

"I guess I can see what your saying." Tsukasa said nodding her head.  She turned back to the pro-ing and started repairing again with the help of Yamagi.  

With the pro-ing beside Yamagi's, Wreka made Roose do most of the work while she helped out now and then. She claimed that he had to loose more weight.  Roose just shook his head and thought, _'The things I'd do for a girl.'_ He sighed as he wiped his forehead. "All done Wreka?" he asked as he backed out a few steps away from the pro- ing. She narrowed her eyes and surveyed the pro-ing.  "Here.  It's almost done."  She made some minor adjustments, explained to Roose what needed to be corrected, then said in a very cheery voice, "Yup! It's all done."  

  
  
Both of them turned around, and walked over to Clay and Saki and waited along side them for the others to finish so they could head out for lunch in the mess hall.    
  


  
"Hi!" said Wreka, making Saki jump up slightly. 

"Don't do that!!" said Saki in a slightly scolding voice.  
  


  
"What were u staring at Saki?" Wreka asked, looking innocent.    
  


  
"Oh, nothing really. Hey, what do you think about Zero and Kizna as a couple?" said Saki, her eyes shinning.

  
  
"Zero and Kizna?" said Roose overhearing the conversation. He burst out laughing.  Soon, his face started turning red from the lack of air. Wreka just gave Roose a weird look and turned back to Saki.

  
  
"You know, I think they just make the cutest couple." Said a gushing Wreka. "Just look at them!!" All four of them turned and looked up to where Zero and Kizna were. 

Zero was fighting with Kizna about what he should get to repair. Kizna kicked Zero in the knee and by accident, Zero let go the screwdriver in his hand at that moment and it went flying towards the group of four who were watching the 'cute couple' bickering.  

  
  
Roose, who didn't take notice of the screwdriver, got hit in the head unfortunately.  

  
  
Zero looked over to where the screwdriver went and took notice of three pairs of staring eyes. Roose was knocked out apparently. "Hey you guys, have you three seen where the screwdriver went?" Zero asked, looking around the vicinity.  He spotted it by Roose and ran down to retrieve the screwdriver. "Sorry about that Roose." All he got in response was a groan out of Roose. Then all of a sudden yelling could be heard throughout the pro-ing hanger.  
  


  
"ZERO!! Get your butt back here and finish helping me with the repairs!!" yelled a fuming Kizna. Clay, Saki, Wreka, and Zero all turned their heads away from Roose only to see a red faced Kizna glaring at Zero.  Zero winced.  

  
  
"Hehe..." Zero sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he walked back to where Kizna was.  
  
  
Yamagi looked over his shoulder when he heard Kizna holler at Zero. He shook his head and sighed.  Tukasa looked up and wondered why Yamagi didn't answer her when she called.  
  


  
"Hey Yamagi?" she asked sweetly.  
  


  
"Huh? Oh yea, what is it?" said Yamagi, a little bored. 

"I called you like five times and you didn't respond. What's wrong?" said Tukasa with a worried look on her face.  
  


  
"Nothing. Are we done yet?"  

"Yup. Your pro- ing is all fixed." Said Tukasa with a satisfactory smile on her face. Then, she grabbed Yamagi's hand and dragged him over to where Clay, Saki, Wreka and a knocked-out Roose were waiting.  

 Yamagi looked over at Roose wondering what happened to him.  He voiced his thoughts and asked the others about it.  "Oh, he got hit by a screwdriver." Wreka said, looking over to Tukasa and Yamagi.  Yamagi blinked a few times, then, shuddered at that thought.  
  


  
"What were you guys talking about?" asked Yamagi, once he got over what happened to Roose. Saki and Wreka looked over to him with a sparkle in their eyes. "Uhhh... I don't think I want to know," said Yamagi, slowly backing away from the quickly advancing girls.  

  
Lucky for Yamagi, Ikhny decided to take a break and walked over to the other repairers and candidates.  "What's going on here? I heard Kizna screaming… something about a screwdriver and when I turn back around, the girls are ganging up on Yamagi." Ikhny explained.  

  
Clay pointed to where the other girls were, explained Saki's theory to Ikhny and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Oh..." was all Ikhny said in response.  
  


  
"So Ikhny, what do you think of Zero and Kizna as a couple?" asked Saki as she grabbed the brown haired girl by the shoulders.  She turned back to Yamagi and asked, "So, what do you think?"

  
"Like I'd care about those two." Said Yamagi as he turned around and sat down on the floor. Saki just glared at the back of his head and turned back to Ikhny.

"Well?"  Ikhny turned and took a look at Zero and Kizna.  Kizna saw Ikhny look at her and waved to her brown haired friend.  Ikhny waved back.  

"I think they would be all right for each other."  Ikhny said as she gave a tiny smile.    
  


  
"Ok then, how bout we get them together? You know, both of them like each other but they're both too stubborn to see it. Let's be the matchmakers.  Just like in the movies!" said Wreka, going into a dream like state.  Saki gave a smile and agreed on Wreka's plan of action.  

  
  
"Ok, who's in?" asked Saki. Ikhny raised her hand, and so did Clay, Tukasa and Wreka. "All right then, it is Ikhny, Clay, Tukasa, Wreka and I." Said Saki, looking the hands over again.

  
  
"And don't forget Roose!" said a smiling Wreka, her eyes having an evil glint in them. "Ok, now it's Clay, Tukasa, Roose, Wreka, Ikhny and I. Cool." In a slightly lower tone, Saki started explaining her plan to the group.  "Here's the plan you guys." Saki started.  "We'll get them to sit together at lunch, side by side and who ever is sitting next to them, nudge them into each other from time to time."  Saki said.

"That's your plan?"  Yamagi scoffed.  "Even I could think of a better plan than that… and I'm not even a part of your little "matchmakers" group." 

"Well, sorry! That was the first thing that came into my head so we'll go with that."  Saki countered, sticking her tongue out at Yamagi.  Just then, Zero and Kizna walked up to the group.  
  


  
"Hi you guys. What are you all talking about?" asked Kizna, wondering. Unfortunately, Kizna couldn't find out because Zero interrupted. 

  
  
"I want to go and get lunch now. Can we go already?" asked Zero as he grabbed his stomach. Kizna shook her head. "It's all about you and food isn't it?"

  
  
"Well no, I also think about becoming a pilot!" said Zero, putting a fist into the air. Everyone laughed at that. Kizna sighed and dusted off some dirt that had gotten on her pant leg from repairing the pro-ing.

  
  
"Ok mister. Come on, we'll go and eat now." Kizna said as she grabbed his ear and pulled him to the door leading out of the pro- ing hanger. Everyone else just followed, whispering to each other, while Yamagi got stuck carrying Roose. 

TCG: Well, hope you liked the re-written chapter.  I think this is a lot better than the one I previously had.  ^_^ I will soon be working on the third chapter.  I might re-write the first chapter again.  If I do so, then I'll put up an author's note saying so.  


	3. 03 Plan of Action

***Note: The candidates and repairers are around the age of fifteen in this story. **

Partner or Lover? Chapter 3: Plan of Action 

(_Rewritten: 1/14/04)_

  
Along with the rest of the candidates and repairers, Kizna and Zero headed out towards the mess hall for lunch.

  
  
"Kizna, let go of my ear!!" screamed Zero, as he was dragged to the mess hall.

  
  
"Ok, ok, just quit complaining about your stomach." Sighed Kizna. Zero had been complaining about his stomach ever since they had left the pro-ing hanger and Kizna took it upon herself to make sure Zero wasn't out of line, explaining the pulling-on-the-ear.  The group of nine teenagers walked into the mess hall and found a table to sit at.

  
  
"Ok you guys. Put the plan in action!  If it doesn't work, then we'll just leave one by one until it's just Kizna and Zero.  That's our backup plan," said Saki, to everyone when out of earshot from Kizna and Zero. They nodded their heads, except for Yamagi who took no part in this. All the candidates- other than Hiead- and the repairers got their lunches and sat down to eat.  
  


  
"I wonder where Hiead is.  I did not see him come in the mess hall for lunch." Kizna muttered to herself as she placed a piece of food in her mouth.  
  


  
Zero's veins boiled at the sound of his name.  He heard Kizna perfectly well, since she was sitting right beside him.  Before pro-ing battle today, Zero and Hiead got into a fight in their room.  

**_Flashback_**

_"Hey Clay! Hurry up! I don't want to be late today otherwise he might make us run around GOA like he made Hiead!" Zero said, snatching a glance in Hiead's direction.  _

_"Don't insult me Enna, otherwise I'll see to it that you pay for the comments that come out the big hole in your head that you call a mouth."   Hiead snarled._

_Zero just mimicked him, making funny faces at Hiead.  Hiead growled and ran at Zero.  "I told you!" Hiead sharply whispered.  He grabbed Zero by the neck and rammed him into the wall.  Zero's eyes narrowed.  _

_"What the hell are you doing Hiead!" Zero asked as he pushed Hiead off of him.  _

_"I told you, don't insult me!"  Hiead growled.   Zero glared at Hiead. _

_"Well you don't have to get all tense about it!" Zero said.  Hiead lost his temper and let a punch loose at Zero, hitting him square in the mouth.  Zero felt a drop of blood in his mouth and grimaced.  _

_"You're going to pay for that Hiead!"  Zero said as he knelt down a bit, getting ready to pounce on Hiead.  Zero gave Hiead an uppercut, sending him sprawling onto the floor.  _

_"How dare you!" Hiead screamed. He rammed his head into Zero's chest knocking them both down to the ground.  Both boys started grabbing, twisting, and punching each other till they were satisfied.  Clay finally came out and broke up the fighting.  After that, Hiead just walked out of the room ignoring both boys.  Zero cleaned himself up and went with Clay to the battle room._

**_End of Flashback_**

"Don't mention him!!" growled Zero. Everyone looked at him wondering what happened to change his behavior so suddenly.  Only Clay knew his reason for being so angry with Hiead.  

'_Guess Hiead had a bad night or something and woke up on the wrong side of the bed…'_ Clay thought.

  
  
"Well sorry!" said Kizna as she turned her back on Zero. Saki leaned over to Wreka and whispered to her. "It looks like it's not going to plan. What should we do?  At this rate, if we try to make them talk, it'll only make matters worse."

  
  
"Don't ask me." Wreka whispered back sharply.  "You're the one who made up the plan in the first place!" said Wreka trying to get out of this mess. Saki let out a frustrated growl and poked her fork rather harshly into her food.  She whispered, "Go to plan two," to Wreka and continued eating.  

  
  
Kizna heard a 'clang'- Saki's fork banging against her plate- and looked up, throwing a questioning glance at Saki and Wreka. Wreka decided to cover this one and shot a 'you-owe-me' glance at Saki.  

"Don't worry Kizna.  It's just some petty argument between us, that's all." Said Wreka, throwing a mean look at Saki just for show, though she silently praying that Kizna would buy the excuse. Kizna gave her a weird glance and then resumed talking to Ikhny thinking that they were just being weird.  
  


  
Nobody decided to go with the plan since Zero was still fuming over Hiead and they didn't want to take the risk of him getting mad at them.  

Suddenly he brightened up. "Hey Clay! How about we go check out the goddesses today?" Clay turned and looked at Zero as if he had grown another head.  
  


  
"Are you crazy? You know how much trouble we would get into if we did that?"  Clay looked incredulously at Zero.  Zero just shrugged and continued eating. Clay sighed inaudibly and just changed the topic.  
  


  
"What are you guys going to do for the rest of the day?" said Clay trying to start up a conversation. Roose and Yamagi said they were going to go and have a practice battle with the pro- ings later.  That got Zero all hyped up and he said that he would come along too. 

Once Clay was done eating, he turned to Saki and nodded at her- indicating that they could still go on with plan B. He gave her the signal and she told the others that the second plan was in action.  
  


  
Saki and Clay got up and said their good- byes, mentioning about going to research on something. Soon they both left the mess hall. Wreka winked at Tukasa deciding that she'd be the next to leave. After about five minutes, Wreka got up and said that she was going shopping- there was a small shop in GOA where they could buy things- and dragged Ikhny and Roose out of the mess hall with her. Now there was only Zero, Kizna, Yamagi and Tukasa at the table.  
  


  
After a while, Tukasa and Yamagi stood up… actually, Tukasa demanded that Yamagi stand up. "Kizna, sorry about leaving you both here, but I want to show Yamagi something I installed in his pro- ing before lunch ends because he is planning on battling Roose, so I'm taking Yamagi now.  See you guys later." said Tukasa as she and Yamagi left.  
  


  
There was an uncomfortable silence that settled over the table and neither Zero nor Kizna knew what to say. "Um… So…" Kizna tried to start a conversation but did not know what to say.  The two of them sat there in silence, eating their food quietly.

  
  
Outside the mess hall, six heads peeked through the mess hall doors keeping a watchful eye on the two that were sitting at the table.

  
  
"So Zero, what are you going to do all day? Because if you do not have any plans, we can work on you anti- gravity sickness." said Kizna, as she looked up from her food and looked at Zero.

  
  
"Uh, I was thinking of battling Roose or Yamagi but I guess that is later on in the evening so I am free until then, but I really don't feel like going into space today." Zero glanced up at Kizna. "Ok?"

  
  
Kizna saw Zero look up and she ended up looking straight into his eyes.  They were captivating blue eyes and she couldn't pull her eyes away from his.  She heard him murmur something on the lines of a question to her, but she was so captivated with his eyes, that she totally missed what Zero said.  
  


  
"Kizna? Are you still here?" said Zero waving a hand in front of her face breaking her trance. 

"Huh?"  
  


  
"I said, I don't feel like going to space today so I'd rather just hang out inside." Said Zero as he gave her a weird look. "Are you feeling OK Kizna?  You zoned out for a few minutes."

  
  
By now, Kizna was staring at the table too embarrassed to look up at Zero.  "I'm fine.  Just forget whatever happened."  Zero shrugged his shoulders and continued eating.  He cleaned up his plate and threw it into the trash.

  
  
After watching her eat for a few minutes he said "Come on Kizna, everyone is busy and you are the only one who can keep me company, so hurry up."  

He took a seat across from her and rested his head in his hands. Kizna heard Zero asking her to eat faster so she shoveled down her meal, threw the plate in the trash, and got up.

  
  
"All right, where are we headed to Zero?" Kizna said as she followed the brown haired boy out of the mess hall.  The six heads waiting outside the mess hall noticed Zero and Kizna coming out and they scrambled to their feet and went in different directions making sure that Zero and Kizna couldn't find them. 

   
  
"Hey Zero I got an idea! How about going shopping? You know the store where they sell all those dresses and other accessories? We can go there," said Kizna turning towards Zero to see his reaction.  
  


  
"Are you _crazy_?" screamed Zero as he stared at her in disbelief. Suddenly Kizna started cracking up, her face turning red from the lack of air.  "HAHA… Zero you should have seen your face it was so funny!"  Kizna took a look at his face and saw his eyes filled with anger.  "Sorry.  Well I'm not a person for shopping so you can forget about that. I just wanted to see your reaction…" said Kizna as she burst out in a fit of giggles.  
  


  
"Hey! It's not funny.  Me and shopping do not go together." He said growling.

"It's shopping and I, Zero." Corrected Kizna. 

"Whatever… Let's get out of here."  Zero led the way to the recreation room as Kizna followed him there.  
  


  
They both entered the recreation room and sat down under a tree that was near by.  An uncomfortable silence settled in between the two teenagers.  "So, Zero…" started Kizna trying to make a conversation.  
  


  
"Hey, Kizna," Zero said suddenly, looking off into the distance.  "I was wondering, you never talk much about your past. Like when you came to G.O.A, and how it was back home for you." Kizna got silent at the mention of this. But, Zero didn't take notice of this and kept on talking. Kizna looked towards the ground, her eyes narrowed, and shining with tears.    
  


  
"Kizna? A-are you ok?" asked Zero, finally taking a look at Kizna only to find out that she was about to cry.  
  


  
"I'm fine Zero." Said Kizna sharply, pulling back that tears that were threatening to fall. Zero didn't believe her.  
  


  
"Is it something I said?" Zero asked tentatively.  "If it is I didn't mean it."  He said with a sad smile on his face.

"It's okay Zero. I just don't like to remember about my past… it's not exactly what you would call cheerful…" Kizna said, carefully picking out her words so she will not give away too much information.  She knew she would end up telling Zero about her past sometime or another, but she was not ready to tell him just yet.  

Zero just looked down and mumbled an apology under his breath, but Kizna did not hear him.  

All of a sudden, Zero felt a pounding on his back and his head shot up towards her.  He gave her a questioning glance and she answered, "It's okay.  I don't like dwelling on the past that much anyways. It is the future that I care about!" said Kizna as she gave him a thumbs-up.  
  


  
Zero blinked a few times.  _'What's with this girl? First she's mad at me in the mess hall, then she's about to cry, now she's hyper!!'_ He thought to himself, counting off with his fingers.  He sat upright and gave her a weird look.  
  


  
"What? Something wrong?"  Kizna asked after looking at his weird look.

"Um, it's nothing Kizna.  It's just...how do I put this?" asked Zero scratching the back of his head. "How can you be sad one minute, and cheery the next?" asked Zero in wonder.  

  
  
"Well, it's not good to be dwelling on one thing for too long. Makes your brain hurt." Kizna said giggling as she lay down on her back looking up at the top of the room.  
  


  
Zero just stared at her as if she were crazy. "So much for an answer… I ask her a question, she gives me a cryptic message."  Zero muttered under his breath.  _' But that's what I love about her. She's funny and smart too.  She's always free, and looking towards the future.' _Zero thought, a smile on his face.  After a minute of dwelling on Kizna, reality finally hit.  _'What the hell was I thinking about??? This is Kizna here!_' Zero thought, yelling at himself mentally.  

  
Kizna glanced over at Zero and saw that he was making funny faces and his eyes were really big. "Zero, is anything the matter?"  
  


  
"Huh? Oh… nothing's wrong. I was just thinking about something that's all," said Zero as his face turned pink.  Kizna raised an eyebrow at him and giggled.  

_'He looks cute when he blushes.'_ She thought as her face was painted in a slight hue of pink. She glanced over to Zero and caught him looking at her and both turned away instantly.  
  
  


----

  
  
Everyone ran in different directions as they saw Zero and Kizna exit the mess hall. After five minutes - when they thought it was safe for them to come out- Clay, Saki, Ikhny, Wreka, Tukasa, Roose and Yamagi saw Zero and Kizna head out for the recreation room. The seven who were spying decided to follow them there.

  
  
Saki peeked through the door to see what was going on. She felt a sharp pain in her back and turned around to see what caused it.  "Hey!! Wreka, get your elbow out of my back!" hissed Saki, trying not to give away their cover. 

Everyone was crammed up near the door to see what was happening in the room. They saw Kizna lay down and Zero's face turn red. At that point, Yamagi burst into laughter when he finally got a glimpse at Zero's face.  
  


  
"Shhhhh!!" everyone whispered as Tukasa grabbed his mouth in an attempt to shut him up. They continued to watch the scene unfold before them, but unfortunately, they couldn't hear what was being said.  
  
  


----

  
"Hey Zero, it's just a theory, but do you really think that the others had things to do? They all looked a bit too excited to leave if you ask me." Said Kizna, finally getting her nerve back to look at Zero.  

  
  
"Uhhh… the guys were acting funny today." Zero said just to agree with Kizna.  He did not want to get onto Kizna's

bad side right now.  He thought about what she said for a few minutes and realized that she might be on to something.   "You know, now that I think about it, you might be right."  Said Zero standing up.  
  


  
Kizna pulled him back down a little too roughly. "And where do _you_ think your going? If they know that we are onto them, then they'll deny it." Kizna frowned, then got an evil look in her eyes. "We can go with their plans for right now, if my theory is right that they do have a plan of some kind, and we'll get them back for it later." She said grinning.

  
Zero stared at her, wondering if it is safe to be near her when she is concocting a plan.  "They just left us together and went off on their own." Said Zero as too he tried figuring out what was going on.   
  


  
Kizna had an inkling that they were trying to get her and Zero together, but she thought that would never happen. Especially if the other person is Zero.  But the more she thought about it, the more she came to believe that it was really the other's plan to set them up.  She thought of telling Zero, but immediately refused because if there was any chance of her and Zero being together, then that would ruin all her chances.

  
  
Then a thought struck her. _'Why am I thinking of all these things? Do I even care for Zero in that way? He's JUST my partner right?  Sure I love him and feel attracted to him in more than a friendly manner, but is that love?'_ She stared off into the distance until Zero brought her back down to earth… err… G.O.A. 

"Hey, you've been zoned out for at least five minutes.  What's been on your mind?" Zero asked. 

  
  
"Oh, nothing much.  Hey Zero, I'm going to close my eyes for a bit. Can you wake me up in fifteen minutes?"  Zero nodded.  He saw Kizna slowly shut her eyes, falling into a light slumber…or so he thought.

  
  
Those same thoughts about love came back into Kizna's head as she closed her eyes. _'Does Zero care about me? And the feelings I have for him, are they really love? Or is it my stupid hormones?  How will I ever know if he likes me or not?'_ thought Kizna as she tried to sort out her feelings. After going through a ton of emotions and trying to figure out her feelings, she finally realized that she truly loved Zero. Now all she had to figure out is whether Zero loves her. She realized that it was Zero she was talking about and he was not exactly the brightest bulb on GOA.  _'Guess I'll have to wait a bit longer for him.'_

Zero couldn't stop his eyes from trailing over Kizna even though he knew it was wrong.  It was like his eyes were drawn towards Kizna and he could do nothing about it_.  'She looks so peaceful.'_ He noticed as he stared at her facial features, from her ears to her hair and to her reddish lips. 

His eyes dimmed a bit and he kept his eyes poised on her lips.  He unknowingly started to lean downwards, closer to Kizna than he meant to be. Millions of emotions started running through his head. 

  
His face slowly neared Kizna's as he felt her soft breath on his face.

  
  
Outside, the group of seven was watching expectantly, hoping Zero would kiss Kizna. "Come on, you're so close!" Saki murmured under her breath.  Some of their faces started turning blue from holding their breath for too long, the tension climbing.      
  


  
Zero had no clue what he was doing, but he knew it was right. It was what he wanted and in his mind, there was only one emotion really standing out to him in the midst of all this. _'Is this what love feels like?'_ thought Zero as he closed his eyes and leaned in a bit closer preparing to kiss Kizna.    
  
  
Kizna suddenly felt someone breathing really close to her. She cracked her eyes open slightly and was shocked to see Zero leaning over her, his eyes closed and inches away from kissing her. Kizna frowned and her eyes narrowed.  She felt like she was being watched from somewhere and didn't seem so comfortable all of a sudden.  

She leaned in a bit closer, her lips brushing past Zero's cheek accidentally as she whispered in to his ear, "Zero, I think someone's watching us."  

She giggled when Zero's eyes shot open and he backed away about a good ten feet.  
  


  
"I- I-…Kizna…I'm _so_ sorry.  I don't know what I was thinking."  Kizna silently chuckled to herself as she saw the look on Zero's face.  
  


  
"Zero it's ok."  She blushed and said, "I actually wouldn't have minded if you kissed me actually." She looked over at Zero for a reaction, wondering if he actually loved her or just got carried away with the moment.  
  


  
"I -I -" Zero just sat there, his face turning beet red as he stuttered. Kizna smiled and crawled over to him. _'I guess the only way for me to get it out of him, whether he likes me or not is by giving him a little push. Sheesh do I have to do everything for him?'  
  
_

  
"What happened back there Zero?" Kizna asked, hoping she would get the answer she wanted.  
  


  
"Um…I really don't know… It was as if a surge of emotions took over me and, and…I do not know," Zero whined.  "I wasn't myself.  But, I know… I felt a strong connection towards you…" Said Zero as he just stared at the ground, face turning pink.  He was sure Kizna probably thought he was crazy by now.  

Kizna smiled. It was as she expected.  Zero did care for her, even though she was not sure if it was love, she knew that Zero liked her on a level more than friendship.  
  


  
"You know, I care for you too Zero…" Almost as an after thought, she added, "More than a friend would."  
  


  
By this time, the others outside were pissed that their plan did not go accordingly, but little did they know that it was working. Since they could not hear what those two were talking about, they could only tell by the actions they did.  Saki sighed in frustration. "We were so close! Oh well, I guess we'll have to continue on tomorrow." She said as she turned and continued watching the two in the recreation room.  
  


  
"Hey, Zero. I have a feeling that someone's watching us." Said Kizna as she turned to face the doors that led out of the room. As she was doing so, she spotted a red, brown and purple blur in front of the door one second and gone the next. 

Kizna's eyes narrowed and her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the door for a few more minutes. Her theory was conformed. Their friends were setting Zero and her up, but she would not tell the others that she knew of their plans, especially Zero.  That would just ruin everything…  
  


  
"Hey Zero, after dinner today can you meet me back here fifteen minutes before lights out? I need to tell you something," said Kizna as she turned to go.  
  


  
As she made her way to the doors where Zero and herself entered, she felt a hand grab her arm softly and pull her back. She turned around only to meet two bright blue eyes that were staring at her with an emotion that she never thought Zero was capable of having towards her.  
  


  
"Zero…" she whispered as she stared back at him, waiting for him to say something.  Zero broke the gaze, knowing that his emotions would come back and take over him if he stared at her any longer, getting hypnotized by her cat- like eyes.  
  


"Kizna, I- I… oh forget it.  I'll tell you when I see you here later today." said Zero, as he tried to figure out how to tell Kizna that he loved her… or did he?  Kizna smiled at Zero and softly pulled her arm out of his hold and walked towards the door.  
  


  
The others peeked back into the room, hoping it was safe for them to look back in.  A few seconds later, they saw Kizna heading towards them and they all panicked and started running towards where they were supposed to be.  
  


  
Kizna came out of the recreation room looking a bit confused. "I swear I heard voices out here. Or maybe it was just me." Kizna said under her breath.

  
  
"Maybe it was just you!" said a voice from behind, making Kizna a bit jumpy.

  
  
"OH! Zero it is just you. Come on, you're going to be late for your practice with Roose and Yamagi." Said Kizna noticing that Zero was back to his normal self, which relieved her.  She did not want to explain herself to Zero just yet.   
  


  
Once Kizna said that, Zero smacked his forehead in remembrance and raced down the hallway towards the pro- ing hanger ready for a battle as Kizna came running behind him, yelling for him to slow down.  
  
 


	4. 04 Feelings Revealed I

Partner or Lover Chapter 4: **Feelings Revealed I**

(Rewritten: 02/07/04)

  
  
"Zero wait up!" Kizna yelled as she ran behind him towards the pro- ing hanger.  From behind the recreation room, seven heads popped out and stared at the scene in front of them.

  
"Uhh, Roose?" Yamagi asked, tapping on the blue haired teenager's shoulder.  "We should get going now.  Otherwise we won't get a chance to battle with the pro- ings today." Yamagi stood up from where he was sitting and looked towards Roose.  
  


  
"Yea…" Roose answered back, staring off into the distance with a glazed look in his eyes.  He blinked a few times, snapped out of his trance, and looked up at Yamagi.  "Wait for me, I'm coming.  Give me a minute," said Roose as he got up and followed Yamagi towards the pro-ing hanger with Tukasa and Wreka behind them. 

They walked down the narrow hallway that Kizna and Zero walked through and soon ended up in front of the battle room.  They entered and saw Zero and Kizna waiting for them.  
  


  
"What took you four so long?" asked Kizna upon their entrance.  
  


  
"Oh.  We got stopped in the hallway because some people to talk to us. Now we're here so lets get started." Yamagi said, as he walked over to the pro-ing hanger to get his pro-ing.  

Once the three boys were in their pro-ings and on the battlefield, Kizna said, "All right, all systems go Zero."

"Is it every man for himself?"  Roose asked.  Zero and Yamagi nodded.  Roose gulped.   

Zero charged for the pro- ing Roose was in.  The blue haired boy dodged Zero's pro-ing by throwing himself to the side.  Yamagi let out a growl and charged head- on at Roose just like Zero did a second ago.  Roose's eyes widened and he let out a "yelp" as he jumped to the side once again.

"What is this?!  That's not fair, it's two against one now!!" Roose yelled from his pro-ing.  Yamagi chuckled.  

"We just have the same target in mind… that's all," said Yamagi as he winked at Roose.   

After another fifteen minutes of goofing around, throwing punches here and there, the boys finally got serious about training.  

"Oi! Don't come that close!" Roose yelled as Zero attacked him once again.  Zero flew around the battlefield and after a minute in the air, he dived at Roose once again.  His eyes narrowed and he took out his power blade and prepared to chop Roose down the middle.  He lifted the blade over his head as he body propelled him down at an accelerated pace.  

Once in "chopping" range, Zero said to Kizna, "Reroute all power to the power blade.  I'm taking Roose out!"  

Wreka heard this and screamed instructions to Roose.  "Roose! Above you! Zero is preparing to attack. Get out of there!"  Her hands were gripped around the armrests of her chair, her knuckles turning white. 

"Huh?" Roose took a glance up and saw Zero coming down at him with a power blade in his hands.  Roose's eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock.  

  
Roose heard Wreka say something but it did not register what she said to him.  He blinked and asked her to repeat it.  "Use your beam rifle! I gave it extra power.  You have enough firing range to make a perfect hit!" Wreka yelled.  

Roose grabbed his beam rifle and aimed it at Zero.  He let it power up and let out two shots.  It hit Zero straight on- one in the shoulder disabling his left arm and one in the chest.  Zero let out a scream as his power blade was flung out of his hands and his body was thrown to the floor.  

"KIZNA! DO something!" Zero yelled at his repairer in frustration.  Kizna let out a frustrated scream and told him to watch out for Yamagi who was now charging at him.   Zero let out a groan and hauled his body up.  Without his left arm, it would be a bit harder to fight.  

Zero let out an animalistic growl and flung himself over to the ground once more, this time onto his chest.  He crawled over to where his power blade was and held it tightly in his grasp.  He heard a 'whoosh' over his head and looked up.  Flying right above him was Yamagi, eager to attack him.  

Zero let out the breath he was holding and stood up with the power blade in his right hand.  He took a quick glance around him and spotted Roose behind him. 

'_Roose is behind me and Yamagi is charging right at me…'_ Zero thought as he quickly thought of a plan.  "This has to work perfectly for me to get out of this alive," Zero whispered to himself.  His eyes narrowed in concentration and he kept his eyes fixed on Yamagi's approaching body.  Zero felt his pro-ing's circuits shortening and he thought, '_I have to do this quick!'_  

Zero heard Kizna yell over the speaker, "You only have half your strength left Zero."

Zero nodded to himself and saw Yamagi a few feet away from him.  "Let's do this," Zero said as he raised his power blade in front of his body, trying to defend himself.  

Yamagi flew at Zero, his power blade out as he charged for the brown haired boy.  Both blades hit each other with a loud 'bang', sending sparks flying everywhere.  Zero bared his teeth at Yamagi and put most of his body weight behind the blade.  Yamagi felt his feet giving away from the pressure and he slowly started sliding backwards.  His eyes widened as he looked at Zero in the face.  

Zero turned his head for a quick second and saw Roose charging at both of them from behind.  Zero let out a scream as he threw Yamagi off him and Zero threw his body to the side.  He landed on the sandy ground with a loud 'thump' and felt his body vibrate on impact.  

Yamagi slid back a few inches after Zero threw him off.  He looked up and saw Roose in his face and Yamagi let out a scream.  Roose's eyes widened as his body collided into Yamagi's.  Yamagi's eyes narrowed.  '_That Zero is a clever one…'_ Yamagi thought as he threw Roose's body off his.  Yamagi soon realized that he could not move his hands or legs, and was too exhausted to get up.  

Roose was in the same position. His body was thrown off Yamagi's and he landed on the hard ground and saw sand cloud over him.  Roose groaned and stayed down, every muscle in his body aching from the collision with Yamagi.  

Zero moaned and tried to move.  He felt his arm still moving.  He heard Kizna's voice echoing once again the the pro-ing. "Zero? Are you all right?"  He heard the soft voice say.  

'_Kizna's voice is so soothing…calm…'_ Zero thought as he closed his eyes for a second.  He opened them once again and gritted his teeth as he lifted his upper body with great difficulty.  

"Yamagi and Roose are disabled," Kizna stated as she kept her eyes trained on the battlefield.  

"Well, Zero is too.  He can barely move right now," said Tukasa, pointing over at Zero.  Kizna smiled and nodded.  

"So I guess this is a tie… until next time." Kizna said grinning.  Yamagi, Roose and Zero all crawled back over to the pro-ing hanger and deposited their pro-ings back into their proper places.  Kizna shut off the system and ran into the hanger.  

She saw Zero stumble out from his pro-ing and she ran up to him and caught his exhausted body just in time.  "Hey, you all right?" She asked him in a quiet voice.  He gave a slight nod.  She set him up right and let him rest against the pro-ing's leg.  

He took in a few deep breaths and heard quick footsteps making their way past him.  He opened his eyes and saw Yamagi and Roose were in bad shape also. Wreka and Tukasa tended to them and he felt Kizna's soft hands trailing over his arms.  He looked at her and saw her eyes on him.  He looked at her questioningly and she smiled and shook her head.  "Nothing," he heard her whisper. "Let's get you guys to Dr. Rill," Kizna said to Zero and the others.  

Zero placed his arm around Kizna's shoulders as she allowed him to put most of his weight on her.  The other two repairers were helping their candidates in the same way.  The three repairers walked side by side and Zero turned towards the other two guys.  "Nice battle," he said smiling.  Kizna shook her head.

"I'll never understand guys," she muttered under her breath.  

Zero placed his lips by her cat- like ear making sure Wreka, Roose, Yamagi and Tukasa were not watching and whispered, "You are not supposed to understand us, just like we don't understand girls…"

Kizna felt shivers down her spine and realized she liked the feeling of close proximity between herself and Zero.  

The six of them finally arrived at the medical wing and entered the room.  Dr. Rill was on duty and was working at a near by terminal.  "Uh, Dr. Rill?" Kizna asked.  Dr. Rill turned around and looked over the six children.  

"Come in, come in.  You three look like you are in bad shape," she said as she motioned the three girls to place the boys on the beds available.  "What happened?" she asked.

"We were in a pro-ing battle and got carried away, but I think it was well worth it." Zero said smiling.  The other two boys lying by his side nodded.  Dr. Rill smiled and shook her head.  

She went into another room and came back with a hand full of vials, bandages and other accessories.  

After a few hours of fixing and waiting, the three boys were as good as new.  "Looks like they needed a few hours of rest, that's all," Dr. Rill said as she released the three candidates.  They heard the door 'swish' open and saw a red head come in.  

"Hey guys!" They heard Saki say.  

"Hello, how did you find us?" Kizna asked.  Saki just gave a cunning smile.  

"Well, I got directions from someone who saw you six heading this way and I decided to stop by.  Clay and Ikhny came with me," she said as Clay and Ikhny walked in.  Kizna nodded.

"Are you three all right?" Ikhny asked, coming up to stand by Kizna.  After Hiead got his punishment and was not allowed into the pro-ing battle room until he finished his rounds, Ikhny had become much more aggressive.  

"We're fine," Roose said as he pulled the blankets off his body and sat up in bed.  He let his warm body cool down – that is why he took off his blankets - and sat cross-legged.  For the rest of the evening, the group of nine made idle chat to pass the time.  

An hour before lights out, the teenagers decided to head back to their respective rooms.  Ikhny and Kizna were in the back of the group, basking in the silence that surrounded them.  _'It's good to finally get a break from Zero yelling and screaming for once,'_ Kizna thought as she glanced up at Zero.  He was currently arguing with Yamagi and Clay about something.  

As the group turned the corner, from the corner of her eye, Kizna spotted Hiead watching… no… glaring at them as he walked a good 10 feet behind them.  Kizna frowned but kept her silence.    
  


She saw him take another turn as the rest of her friends kept walking forward down the current hallway.  '_I wonder where he is going.'_

Kizna heard her name being called faintly, but she thought it was in her head.  Then she heard it again, "Kizna!"  She blinked and turned her head. Her eyes widened, as she saw Zero right in her face, almost nose to nose. 

"Wha-" Kizna started, taking a step back.  

"I said, good night," Zero repeated, frowning at her.  

"Oh, good night. I guess I was lost in thought or something…" Kizna said, as she waved a good night at Clay, Roose and Yamagi.  The four boys went into their rooms and the girls retired to theirs.    
  


  
"Hey!! What are YOU doing HERE?" screamed Zero as he entered his room.  Zero glared at the other boy in the room.    
  


  
"Humph!" said the silver haired boy as he turned his back on Zero.  "This is my room too you know," he said in a cold voice. 

  
"Don't turn your back on me!" snarled Zero.  
  


  
"Hiead, what are you doing back so early?" asked Clay as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose again.

"I got my rounds done early, so Azuma let me go."  Hiead said in a matter-of – fact tone.    
  


  
"Impressive." said Clay, the light shining off his glasses, giving him a mysterious and evil aura.  "You got a hundred laps done in just one day. Very impressive." Hiead just growled.  
  


  
"I'm going to take a bath now." Said Zero, walking away from the two boys, into the bathroom.  
  


  
Hiead just smirked in response. He turned around and said, "You definitely need one."  
  


  
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Zero shouted, turning to face Hiead.  
  


  
"You heard me."  
  


  
"Why YOU!" 

Zero launched himself at Hiead, knocking him off the bed. Soon the two boys were rolling around the floor like some mad animals trying to kill each other.  All of a sudden, a big banging noise startled both boys as the three in the room turned their head and looked at the door.    
  


  
"What the hell is going on in here!" said Azuma storming into the room.

"Nothing sir!" said Zero, clambering off the floor and standing up straight. Azuma's eyes narrowed at the response he gave.  
  


  
"I could hear screaming coming from this room earlier… What's going on here 89?" asked Azuma.

  
Both Hiead, and Zero glared daggers at Clay, daring him to tell Azuma what happened.  
  


  
"Uhh, like Zero said, Nothing sir…" Clay croaked out. He visibly gulped and Azuma stared at them for another minute and then left.  
  


  
Hiead rolled his eyes and Zero and Clay let out a sigh of relief.  Zero headed back towards the bathroom.  Clay read a book and Hiead stared at the ceiling until their other roommate came out of the bathroom.  

Zero entered back into the room, clad in a bathroom towel tied around his waist.  His hair was dripping with water and his feet left water tracks behind him.  He went over to where his clothes were and started looking for his nightclothes.  

An announcement came on telling that lights out would be in ten minutes.  
  


  
"Oh NO!" screamed Zero, as his eyes widened in remembrance.  
  


  
"What is it?" asked Clay.

  
"Huh? Oh, nothing too important… just remembered that Azuma wanted me to do something… if I do not do that… you know how mad he gets… I do not want to do what Hiead just did… " Zero mumbled as he looked for some clothes other than his nightclothes to wear.  

He found a clean shirt and a pair of pants and he removed the towel that was securely fastened around his waist.  He threw the towel onto his bed and was now in boxers.  He slid into his pants and slipped his shirt on.  Zero pulled a pair of socks from under his bed and slipped his shoes back on.    

  
"I'll be back in fifteen minutes Clay." Said Zero as he went out and closed the door softly behind him.

  
----  
  


  
"Man, I'm so tired." Saki complained as she fell onto her bed.  Kizna lifted an eyebrow at her.

  
"How are you so tired? You didn't do anything all day." Said Kizna, giving her a weird look.  
  


  
"How would you know what I did and didn't do all day? You weren't spying on me, so you do not know what I did." Saki said ironically. 

  
"Yeah, but I think I know you well enough, to know that you wouldn't do anything that you don't like.  Your pro- ing was not damaged that badly, so you would not have been in the hanger.  So that does not leave very much." Kizna said, stating the facts. Saki just growled in response.  
  


  
"Hey, it's fifteen minutes from lights out right?" asked Kizna as she looked at her watch.

  
"Yes it is, why do you ask?" said Ikhny.

  
"No reason, just that Azuma asked me to do something earlier.  I said I would do it later and I guess it slipped my mind. I had better do it now because I don't want to be yelled at tomorrow," said Kizna as she slipped out of the room quickly.  

  
Saki and Ikhny looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and got ready for bed.

  
Kizna walked slowly down the hallway knowing that Zero would not be there yet.  He was late most of the time and was never _on_ time… except when he was hungry.  She laughed at that thought. 

She entered the recreation room and walked over to the tree located in the center of the recreation room.  She sat in front of the tress and rested her back against the trunk.  Leaning her head back, Kizna closed her eyes and thought about what she would say when he walks through the door. 

She felt herself growing nervous at the prospect of telling Zero her true feelings and being rejected by him.  At last, she heard the door to the recreation room open and close, but no sound of footsteps could be heard.  Kizna's sense of curiosity perked up.  She was sure that if it were Zero, he would have made a grand entrance.  

She got up and turned around only to bump into something hard.  Her head was thrown back and her body followed.  She went back a couple of feet, landing on her bum, rubbing her nose with her right hand.

  
"Ow… watch it mister…" Kizna growled as she balled up her fist and looked up.  Her eyes widened when she saw Zero standing over her. She blinked a few times taking notice that he was not wearing the G.O.A. uniform.  
  


  
Zero smiled down at Kizna as he watched her rub her nose and yell at him. _'She looks so cute when she's mad,' _thought Zero.  He loved her and it was time to tell her that. It had been on his mind all evening and he had to get it off his chest before it drove him insane.  

  
"Here, let me help you up," said Zero, offering a hand to Kizna.  Kizna gave him a weird face.  
  


  
_'What in the world is wrong with him?  He is actually acting like a gentleman. Did Roose and Yamagi knock a few screws loose in his head in the pro-ing battle today?'_  
  


  
"What's wrong?" Zero asked, seeing the reaction on Kizna's face. 

"You're acting like a gentleman," Kizna blurted out.  "And you never did before."

  
"Hey! I take that as an insult," countered Zero.

  
"What?  That you act like a gentleman now?" asked Kizna, giggling a bit.

  
"No, the other part of it," said Zero, as Kizna "ohh"ed in response.  Kizna patted the seat next to her and Zero sat down.  A comfortable silence set in between them and both were left to drift off into their own worlds.  

  
  


_'Should I go for it and tell Kizna now? Sure, she might hit me and yell at me, but that is the worst that can happen if I tell her, right?'  _Zero let out a sigh and continued his train of thought.  '_I finally realize that the feelings I have for her is love, and now I am chickening out.  I have no way of knowing if she likes me or not… though she did say she would not have minded if I kissed her… is that a positive sign?  I'll take that as a yes and go for it'_ thought Zero.  

Kizna was going through the same turmoil that Zero was going through.  _'I will tell him.  After what he told me earlier, I know he has some feelings other than friendship towards me.  I do not think it can go too badly, though I am not sure if he loves me or not.  He might not have feelings of love towards me yet.'_  Kizna let out a frustrated sigh and unconsciously rested her head on Zero's shoulder as she stared out into space. Zero looked down in surprise as he felt something heavy land on his shoulder.  He gave a tiny smile as he looked at Kizna.    


Both teenagers had a full view of Zion from where they were sitting.  "Zion is beautiful isn't it?" asked Kizna, not turning to look at Zero.  

  
"Yes it is," replied Zero as he looked at Zion.  Silence settled over them once again.  

"Um Kizna?" Zero asked.  
  


  
"Yes?" Kizna lifted her head off Zero's shoulder and looked him in the face.  "What is it?"

  
"Well…" Zero started.  "I have had this feeling for a long time now, but did not know what it was exactly.  However, today you helped me realize what that feeling was.  I know I've been feeling like this a lot longer than I'm aware of…" Zero trailed off, trying to get his thoughts straight.  
  


  
Kizna had a lost look on her face.  "Zero, I don't understand. What are you trying to say?"

  
Zero took a deep breath and decided to go for it. "Kizna,ithinki'vefalleninlovewithyou." Zero blurted out fast.  He looked at Kizna's face and she had a look of confusion and nervousness.  Zero took that as a bad sign.  
  


  
After a minute Kizna blinked and asked, "What?"  
  


  
"I knew it was too good to be true." Zero muttered under his breath as he started to get up.  Kizna gripped his hand and prevented him from standing up fully.    
  


  
"What are you mumbling about? I didn't understand a word, so I asked what you said."  Kizna pulled him back down did not let go of the arm she took a hold of.

  
"You didn't?" asked Zero in bewilderment.  "Oh."  
  


Zero gulped and repeated, "I think I've fallen in love with you Kizna."  He turned his gaze back outside the window, not wanting to look back at her, embarrassed.  He felt her grasp on his arm get tighter and he turned around to face her.  

He looked at her and she was about an inch away from his face.  He blinked and leaned his head back a bit.  His lips parted open as breathing became slightly laborious.    
  


  
"Uhh…" started Zero, as he backed away from her face.

  
"Do you really, Zero?" asked Kizna, still smiling and _very_ close to his face. 

"Do I what?" asked Zero, distracted by the close proximity of his face and Kizna's, to think properly.    
  


  
"Do you really love me?" Kizna asked once again.  Zero nodded in response.  Kizna suddenly pounced on him as if he was her prey. Zero's eyes widened in shock and he wondered what she was going to do to him.

  
Kizna hugged him tightly as she mumbled out how she had been waiting for the longest time for him to say that.  Zero grinned in relief and joy and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  
"I love you too Zero." Kizna finally whispered into Zero's ear.  Zero's ear twitched slightly and he blushed in response.  

The two teens finally realized what kind of position they were in.  Kizna was lying on top of Zero who was flat on the ground. as she realized this, she felt the blood rush to her face.  She mumbled something under her breath to herself and sat up- right against the tree.  
  


  
"What's wrong?" asked Zero, oblivious to what just happened.

  
Kizna shook her head, not trusting her voice just yet.  She was trying not to turn red again.  Zero shrugged his shoulders and sat beside Kizna.

  
He put his arm around his partner and she smiled at him.  Like before, she rested her head against his shoulders, but this time she was aware of what she was doing.  They went back to the way they were before, just enjoying the quiet surroundings.  Kizna slid her arms around Zero's waist and felt him stiffen up.  She was about to take her hands back but felt him relax again, pull her closer, and rest his head on top of hers. 

"Just give me time… I still have to get used to all these new feelings," Zero whispered loud enough so she could hear him.  Kizna just smiled gently at the way Zero was acting.

  
"You know," said Kizna, breaking the silence. "I never knew you could be so…romantic and gentleman- like, Zero."

  
"I can surprise myself sometimes." Zero said, chuckling.  "I guess it's being here with you, like this… it's different now.  I feel calm, and… it's hard to explain." Zero ended, scratching the back of his head, trying to get his thoughts out properly.  

"But what ever your doing to me to make me act this way, I'm enjoying it," laughed Zero, hugging her tightly. 

Without any forewarning, the lights went off and Kizna and Zero were surrounded by darkness.  Zero heard his partner groan in response.  "Now we won't be able to get back to our rooms."  
  


  
"Is that a problem?" asked Zero, laughing softly.  Kizna just glared at him, but she knew that he wouldn't be able to see it.  
  


  
"Glaring at me won't help you know." 

"Huh?" asked a startled Kizna, wondering how he knew she was glaring at him.  
  


  
Zero chuckled in response. " I know you too well Kizna." Kizna rolled her eyes.

  
"You think the others will wonder where we are?  Now that it's lights out, you think that they would come looking for us?" asked Kizna.  
  


  
"Nah, I do not think they would come looking for us.  Clay and Hiead were pretty tired so I bet they just fell asleep right after I left, so I wouldn't be too worried about the guys finding out," said Zero.  
  


  
He turned to Kizna and asked, "Do you think the girls will start looking for you? Cause, then we might have a problem on our hands. If they find out that we're together, they'll never let us live it down."

  
  


"Don't worry, I think they are asleep.  If they were not, they would have started looking for me by now.  You know what I'm thinking?  They were acting a bit strange yesterday and earlier this morning.

"I have this feeling, that they wanted to get us alone, because they never acted like this and it seems weird just to leave us two alone. Ikhny was there and she would have kept me company on a normal day, but she did not. They all must have been in on some kind of plan," said Kizna.

  
"Ahh… so your saying that I'm bad company now?" asked Zero, pretending to be hurt. Kizna laughed at his antics.  
  


  
"No silly.  You make great company for me," said Kizna as she lightly kissed him on the cheek.  She was grateful that it was dark otherwise Zero would have seen her turn bright pink again.

  
After Zero recovered from that kiss, he said, "You know, I think you are right about that.  They were acting a bit strange yesterday. I think that they were trying to get us together. Moreover, I say that it worked… well sort of.  It would have happened eventually… How about we play along with their plans, but we will never get together?  That would be so hilarious. I can't _wait_ to see their faces when they find out all their efforts don't work."  Zero laughed a bit, imagining what their faces would look like if he told them.

Kizna slapped his arm lightly and said, "You're a very bad boy!"  

"Aww… I'm hurt!"  Zero whined playfully.  Kizna giggled.   

She agreed with him saying that they should get back at their friends. "We can get them back at their own game. We will decide on that tomorrow. But for now, I want some sleep, so good night," said Kizna.  

"Good night Kizna," said Zero, as he softly kissed her on the cheek.  
  


  
With that said, Zero and Kizna laid down on the soft floor of the recreation room since neither of them wanted to get up and go all the way back to their respective rooms in the dark. Kizna curled up beside Zero, rested her head on his chest and slowly fell asleep against him, her arms tightly wrapped around his waist. 

Zero felt Kizna move around a bit and looked down to see what she was up to. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see anything. He felt something press onto his chest and felt a something encircling his waist. He smiled when he felt Kizna's body curl up against him and he pulled her closer to his body.  
  


  
Soon both of them fell asleep, side by side, each in their own worlds, dreaming of one another.  



	5. 05 Lunchtime Bash

  
Partner or Lover Chapter 5: **Lunchtime Bash**

(Rewritten: 1/08/04)

  
  
A pair of light blue, sparkling eyes fluttered open, then immediately shut because of the bright light shining through the window in the room. The blue eyed boy groaned as the light hit his eyes. He turned around, wondering where he was, and he felt something pressing into his side.  

He looked over and saw a pink haired girl sleeping peacefully right next to him. Her ears twitched every now and then, giving her a cute look.  His blue eyes widened as the boy thought, '_What is she doing in my bed!? And sleeping next to me no less?'_   The brown haired boy pulled his eyes off of the sleeping girl and looked around "his room".  

'_Wow, wait a second. Where is my room? And what am I doing in the recreation… OH MY GOD! I remember!  I came here to meet Kizna and…_' His blue eyes widened in remembrance and he glanced back towards the girl in his arms, a grin on his face.  He brushed a strand of hair off of Kizna's face, and kissed her softly on her forehead. 

Kizna started to stir, and her eyes fluttered open. Her hand went up immediately, to shield her eyes from the bright light.  "Uhhh…" Kizna groaned.   "What time is it?" she asked, slowly starting to rise. The brown haired teen pulled her back down and wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from leaving.  
  


  
"Zero," she whined in a slightly annoyed tone.  
  


  
"Don't worry, we still have time before the others get up. It's only six o'clock," said Zero, leaning back onto the tree for support, after he sat up.    
  


  
"Only six? Zero, Saki and Ikhny will be up by now," said Kizna, jumping to her feet.  
  


  
"What?  You're telling me that you girls get up at six in the morning every day?? Gosh, what are you people? I can't even get up in the morning, let alone at six," said Zero as he was dragged along the floor of the recreation room, with Kizna pulling on the back of his shirt. "Okay…I'm coming… just let go of my shirt please," Zero asked as Kizna let go. 

  
"Come on Zero. The other's will be up anytime soon!" Kizna stated impatiently.  She grabbed his left hand and pulled Zero down the hallway in the direction of their sleeping quarters. She gave Zero a quick kiss on the cheek and then pushed him inside his quarters and ran down towards hers, not wanting the girls to be awake before she was back.  
  


  
She opened the door quietly- so that it wouldn't make any noise and wake up the others- and tip- toed inside, heading towards her bed. Just when Kizna was about to slip in under the covers, Saki murmured something in her sleep making Kizna jump in fright thinking the girls were awake. 

Kizna turned around at the sound of Saki's voice and calmed down once she realized that Saki was only talking in her sleep, and made her way back into bed. She was grateful that the girls were still asleep; otherwise they would question her till no end, to find out where she was. She slipped underneath the covers and turned over onto her side, falling into a comfortable sleep without worries about having to get up a few hours later for class.  
  


After a few hours, Kizna got up and saw the time; it was almost time for lunch, so she decided to go get dressed, then wake the girls.

  
  
While Kizna was getting her clothes ready, Saki woke up but didn't let her presence go noticed.  Kizna went into the showers and Saki woke up the rest of the girls.  She gently nudged Ikhny awake and once the brown haired girl was awake, she went into the room beside theirs and woke Wreka and Tukasa up.  Both girls came over to Saki's room.    
  


  
"Is everyone wide awake?" Saki asked.  The three other girls nodded.  Saki continued.  "Kizna went into the shower, now it's time to plan."   
  


  
"So, what's the plan?" asked Wreka while she tried to rub the sleep from her eyes.

  
  
"Um… I don't have one yet, but when I think of one, I'll let you know," Saki replied, grinning sheepishly.  Everyone groaned in response. "How about asking the guys when we meet them for lunch?" she asked.  The girls agreed with her.

  
  
Kizna finally decided to come back out and stepped out of the showers.  She saw that Wreka and Tukasa came over to her room and she greeted them.  She had a towel wrapped around her body and she went over to her bed to get her clothes out.   

"The bathroom is free now.  You two can go take a shower whenever you want," Kizna said to Ikhny and Saki.  They both nodded.  

"We should get ready too," Wreka said as Tukasa and Wreka got up and left.  

"What was that?  Why did they come over?" Kizna asked.  

"Oh, they just wanted to ask me something.  Don't worry about it," Saki replied. 

'_They must have been planning something again,'_ Kizna thought as she nodded towards Saki.  

  
The five girls got ready and headed out to the mess hall for lunch. The boys met up with them in front of the mess hall, Hiead lagging behind, not wanting to be seen with them.  Ikhny noticed this and averted her eyes.   
  


  
"Now let's some nasty cafeteria food!" Zero said, laughing.  Kizna just shook her head and dragged him to the food line.  

  
  
"Hey Kizna, can you get food for Clay and I? That is, if you don't mind," Asked Saki, while Clay went to their usual table. 

"Sure Saki." 

The rest of the candidates went to the table following Saki and Clay and told Zero and Kizna they'd be back in a bit to get their lunch.  
  


  
While in line, Zero took Kizna's hand in his, but she pulled back. He looked at her with a questioning glance.  
  


  
Kizna bit her lip in frustration.  "Zero, not here.  Our friends might come up and find out about us.  But I have a plan to get them back for spying on us," said Kizna, getting an evil look in her eyes. "But, we can't act like we're together."   

Zero groaned in response.  He backed away from her slightly, and stood behind her in the line.  

  
  
The rest of the candidates and repairers- minus Hiead- turned around and looked back at the line.  They saw Zero backing away from Kizna.  The only reason they came over to the table was to leave Kizna and Zero alone in line for a while.  Since it looked like nothing was going to happen, they decided to go get their lunch.  Tukasa got up and dragged Wreka with her.  
  


  
"Don't worry you guys, we'll get your lunches." Said Tukasa, as Ikhny ran up to join the two girls.  
  


  
The three repairers slowly made it to the lunch line as they kept a close eye on the pink haired repairer and her partner. The three girls went to the back of the line and started up a random conversation to keep themselves from getting bored.  
  


  
"Look, Hiead is looking over here," Wreka exclaimed, motioning over at the silver haired teen.  Tukasa and Ikhny turned to look over at him and he glared at all three girls.  

"He sure has an attitude problem," Tukasa said silently.  Ikhny looked down to the floor, with a forlorn look on her face.   
  


"I think people can change when put in the right circumstances," Ikhny quietly whispered.  

"Do you really think so?" Tukasa asked.

"Now you listen here Ikhny.  I don't want you going and messing with Hiead's head. That will just make things worse between the two of you.  It isn't very good at the moment and I don't want you to get hurt." Wreka said, making sure what she had said got into Ikhny's head.  

  
Hiead watched the candidates and the repairers as he stood in a corner, evaluating them all. He stared at the brown haired repairer- his partner- wondering why she had such a sad look on her face.  Hiead grimaced and growled.  

  
  
_'I don't need to worry about anyone else but myself.'_ Thought Hiead, as his thoughts drifted away from his partner. He looked around, his eyes landing on Kizna and Zero. _'I don't know how that girl stands Zero. He's such an idiot. Can't do anything right.'_  Hiead glared daggers at Zero and turned away from him, heading back to his room, since he lost his appetite.  
  


  
Zero felt a chill go down his back; he felt someone was staring at him. He turned around, his blue eyes sweeping the mess hall for the source of the shivers.  Zero's eyes landed on Hiead and he saw Hiead throw a glare at him, turn around and walk out of the mess hall. Zero's eyes narrowed a bit, wondering why Hiead was in the mess hall if he wasn't there for lunch.  _'Gosh!  He's so hard to figure out. Why does he have to be so cold all of the time?'_  
  


  
"Maybe because he had a rough past, and to prevent himself from getting hurt again, he covers it up with the "tough man" act," answered Kizna.  
  


  
" What? How did you know what I was thinking?" asked Zero, bewildered. Kizna giggled in response.  "Are you telepathic or something? …Great, now I can't stay near you!" Zero exclaimed getting a fearful look on his face.  Kizna shook her head at him, laughing.    
  


  
"Because you said it out loud silly. You should really stop talking to yourself." Said Kizna, grinning when she saw the surprised look on Zero's face.  Zero frowned a little, but didn't say anything.  
  


  
"I'll be back Kizna. I'm just going to talk with Hiead." Said Zero, preparing to leave the mess hall.  
  


  
"You are not going to start a fight or any thing are you?" Kizna asked.  Zero shook his head implying 'no'.  

  
Kizna smiled. "Zero, whenever you go and talk to Hiead, you always get in a fight. I don't want to see you hurt. Just leave Hiead alone for now."  
  


  
"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to me. You don't have to worry.  I'm just going to talk with him." Said Zero, grabbing her hand and giving it a little squeeze to reassure her. "How about this, you get me lunch and I'll be back in time to eat it?" Said Zero.  
  


  
Kizna narrowed her eyes. "One thing that I am not is a maid… You can get you butt back here and you can get your own lunch mister." Said Kizna grinning at him.

  
"Oh, so you'll get lunch for Saki and Clay, but not me?" Said Zero; pouting once he noticed that she was playing.  
  


  
"I don't have four hands Zero. I can't carry everyone's lunch back," said Kizna. "Why don't you ask Ikhny? She's back there in line."  Kizna pointed to where Ikhny was and then looked over at Zero for his answer.

  
  
"But I can't ask her to get my lunch. That's just not right."  

"Ok then, ask her to get Saki's lunch for me and I'll get your lunch. Okay?" 

"Yeah, that's fine.  I'll see you in fifteen minutes. If I don't come back by then, something has happened to me." Said Zero, jokingly. 

"Fine." Said Kizna, sighing.  
  


  
Zero went up to Ikhny and asked her if she could get Saki's lunch while Kizna bought his lunch. She agreed and Zero walked out of the mess hall. He went up to Hiead and stopped him.  
  


  
"Hey Hiead." Zero said in a serious voice.  

  
  
"Get your hand off me Enna." Said Hiead, giving Zero a cold look.  He shrugged Zero's hand off his shoulder.

  
  
"Listen, I just want to talk to you.  Why were you in the mess hall if you weren't going to get lunch?" asked Zero, staring at the back of Hiead's head, waiting for a response.

  
  
"It's because I saw your ugly face."  Hiead snapped.  His back was still faced towards Zero and when he didn't hear Zero say anything, Hiead decided to explain himself.  "It's none of your business Enna. Now back off!" said Hiead, turning around quickly, to face Zero. 

Zero looked at Hiead, wondering what Hiead would do to him. Hiead's red eyes bore deep into Zero's icy blue ones as fire lit up in the cold red eyes.  "I don't even know why you're here at G.O.A. in the first place Enna.  This isn't a place for weaklings like you. You have to be tough if you want to stay in G.O.A. This is no child's game." Hiead growled, grabbing a hold of Zero's uniform, throwing him back onto the floor.

  
  
Icy blue eyes flashed with fury, as Zero pushed himself off the ground and charged at the lithe form of Hiead, who was currently walking away.  "You're going to pay for that comment.  I didn't come here to fight, but it looks like you want me to fight.  If you wanted to, you could have just asked!" screamed Zero, as he threw a punch at Hiead, hitting him square in the back.

  
  
Hiead crashed onto the tiled floor, only to jump up and charge at Zero for revenge. "Enna, you shouldn't have done that!" said Hiead, in a threateningly low voice. Hiead's hair slowly started turning bluish green as he charged for Zero.  Zero had an EX- reaction too, turning his hair from brown to bluish green. Soon, only blurs could be seen, the two teens moving too fast for the naked eye to see.  

----

Kizna was standing in line, when she got a bad feeling, just like a sixth sense. She decided to check on Zero, having a bad feeling about leaving him and Hiead together, alone.  After all, this was Hiead he was talking to, and who knows how long Hiead can keep his patience.  

Kizna started to walk out of the mess hall when Tukasa, Wreka and Ikhny spotted her.  
  


  
"Hey Kizna! Where are you going?" asked Wreka.

  
  
"I just want to check up on Zero. Hiead is outside, and I don't want them getting into a fight again." Said Kizna turning around and walking out of the mess hall.  
  


  
"Wait up Kizna!" said the 3 repairers as they chased after Kizna to the hallway.

  
  
Kizna got out into the hallway a few seconds before the other girls, but that was enough time for Hiead to pummel Zero.  Kizna looked over to the two blurs moving around the hallway in a death waltz.

  
"Zero!" said a shocked Kizna.  Zero stopped moving for a second, startled when he heard Kizna's voice in the hallway.  Hiead took this chance and threw a punch at Zero's face, sending him sprawling onto the floor in front of Kizna.  
  


  
"Zero, are you alright?" asked a worried Kizna. She bent down and cradled Zero's head on her lap.

  
  
"Uhhh...did someone catch the number on that car?" Replied Zero groggily.

  
  
"Zero this isn't funny! Come on!" said Kizna, now becoming a bit scared.

  
  
"Arghh… Don't worry, I'm all right." Zero said, sitting in an upright position.

  
  
"Good. I was starting to get worried for a second." Kizna stood up and glared at Hiead.  "All right, what did you do this time?" asked Kizna, knowing fully well that it wasn't Zero that started the fight this time because she had his word for it.

  
  
"Back off! This is between Enna and I." Hiead snarled. 

  
  
Kizna stood up to face Hiead. "Look, I know you might have had a terrible past, or something that shook you up and made you this cold, but it's not a good enough reason to bully the people around you!  Zero did nothing to you and yet you take out your anger on him!" screamed Kizna, trying to get some sense into the now sliver haired boy.

  
  
Zero looked on amused, because Kizna never stood up to Hiead like this before.  By now, the other three repairers were out in the hall witnessing the fight between Kizna and Hiead.  Kizna was fuming by now and with all that anger boiling in her veins, she walked over to Hiead and slapped him across the face.  
  


  
Five pairs of eyes widened in shock, surprised at what Kizna had done. Three belonged to the girls, one to Zero, and Hiead was startled himself.

  
  
"Listen you! You should learn how to treat others better, including your repairer.  If she didn't repair your pro-ing, you wouldn't be anywhere by now! Remember that!" yelled Kizna. She turned around and stomped back into the mess hall to get her lunch, with Zero and the girls right behind her.  
  


  
Hiead was still getting over the shock that a girl would hit him.  He thought that no one, a girl that is, would have the guts to stand up to him. His eyes narrowed a bit, while what she said played over in his head. _'She's right, without your partner you wouldn't have gotten this far.' _Hiead thought subconsciously.  His veins boiled at that thought.  "What am I thinking? I must be going crazy. I alone have made it this far!  I don't need any help from anyone, I'll become a pilot myself!" said Hiead, talking out loud by mistake.  
  


  
A few people, who were on their way to lunch, gave him strange glances, and continued on their way. Hiead just glared back at them, and walked back to his room to release his anger on something.  
  


----

  
  
Kizna walked back in line, this time staying long enough to get her lunch.  

Saki watched the four girls and Zero walk back into the mess hall.  She just happened to look that way and saw them coming back in. She frowned and got up from her seat.  She strode over to the group and asked them, "Where were you guys? The last I saw, you guys were in the lunch line?"  She had a confused look on her face.  

"Yes, we were for a while.  Then Zero went out to talk to Hiead.  I had a funky feeling about it so I went out to check on Zero and Hiead.  The others saw me and decided to come along. Apparently, Zero and Hiead got into a fight-"

"Hiead started it!" Zero interrupted.  Kizna gave him a long side-glance before getting back to Saki.  

"So, once everything was settled –"

"Kizna slapped Hiead!" Wreka exclaimed as, once again, Kizna was interrupted.  Kizna shot a glare at Wreka.  

"You did?" Saki asked with an awed look on her face.  Kizna groaned.  

"So what if I did?  He was being an arrogant jerk!" after a second she added, "sorry Ikhny."  Ikhny just nodded.  

"So, like I was saying, once everything was settled, we came back in here.  Now we have to get our lunches."  Kizna finally finished.  

"Ok, then I'll come along with you guys.  I want all the gory details…" Saki said.  The other four girls gave her weird looks.  

"Hey Kizna, do you think you can get me lunch?"  Kizna nodded and Zero went over to the table where the other three boys were sitting and started up a conversation.  

The other four girls followed Kizna, getting their lunches and their partner's lunches in the process.  On one side of the table that could seat twelve, Zero was on one side with Kizna right beside him.  Ikhny was next to Kizna followed by Wreka and Roose.  On the other side of the table across from Zero, Clay sat in the seat with Saki right beside him, which placed her right across from Kizna.  Yamagi sat beside her and Tukasa followed so that she was sitting in front of Roose, across from Wreka.  

While the nine teenagers picked at their food, they made some idle talk to pass the time and soon they were all done with their lunch.  Zero stood up suddenly, walked up to the trashcan, threw his trash in and walked back to the table, this time, not taking a seat.  He stood at the head of the table waiting for something. 

  
  
"What are you waiting for?" asked Clay.  "Are you planning on going somewhere?"

  
  
"I'm going to the pro-ing hanger to get the pro-ing ready for tomorrow. Anyone want to come?" asked Zero.  "It's pretty banged up from yesterday's fight and I know Kizna is coming with me to do the repairs," he said shooting Kizna a glance. 

"Sure I'll come with you guys.  How badly is your pro-ing damaged?" Clay asked.

"Pretty bad.  He lost an arm and he managed to get a couple of holes in it too," Kizna said, sighing.  

Clay's eyes widened.  "Damn…  I think I'll come along, just to make it move faster.  Otherwise you might be there for a couple of days…" He said turning to Saki.  He got a nod from her, indicating that she would come along with them.  

"We need to go get our pro-ing's repaired also…" Roose said looking at Yamagi.  He nodded.

"Right then, everyone going to the pro-ing hanger now?" Zero asked, eyes wide in excitement.  Ikhny nodded.  "All right."

Zero sat back down and waited till everyone finished their lunch, and passed the time by starting up a conversation with Clay about the various different planets and asteroids around the galaxy.  Soon, Clay got into the dynamics of rotating objects and all the kinds of forces acting on such things like G.O.A., Zion, and other various objects in the universe.  

Soon the conversation became one sided and Clay went off on a tangent, talking about the laws of motion.  "You know, it is very interesting.  You see, there is such a thing called a centripetal force that is acting on Zion, and G.O.A. this very moment, making us accelerate towards the sun… except –" Zero tuned him out and groaned as he rested his head in the palm of his hand.  

"Come on Kizna. Hurry up with your lunch."  
  


  
"Don't rush me! Or I'll stuff this food down your throat!" said Kizna a slightly playful voice. Zero gave a funny face looking at the food.  
  


  
"No thanks, one time is enough for me." He said.  
  


Clay kept talking to Zero about the laws of motion while Zero kept tuning him out.  Lucky for Zero, the rest of the candidates and repairers were finally done with their lunch so the group could finally get going towards the pro-ing hanger.  

Once on their way to the pro-ing hanger, Wreka pulled on Saki's shirt sleeve and whispered into her ear, "So what's the plan?"  Saki's eyes widened as the conversation that took place in the morning rushed back to her.  Saki pulled Clay to the back and let the rest of the girls take care of Kizna.  

She asked him for a plan.  Clay, being the genius that he is, thought of something on the spot. Saki, who was now walking beside Wreka, whispered the plan into her ear and Wreka casually went up to Tukasa and told her the plan. The group arrived at the pro-ing hanger and entered.  Kizna, Tukasa and Wreka got straight to the repairing.  Roose, Yamagi and Clay hung out in a corner as Kizna dragged Zero over to his pro-ing and they started repairing.  

That just left Saki and Ikhny by themselves.  Saki nudged the other girl in the side and indicated for her to come closer.  Ikhny bent her head down so that Saki's lips were near her ear.  Saki told her of the plan and then ran up to Kizna and Zero and asked them if they needed any help.  Zero nodded desperately and Saki helped with the repairs.  

After about an hour Roose's pro-ing was finally fixed.  Wreka came down from the elevator-like-crane that she was on and let out a sigh as she wiped the sweat off her face.  "Well Roose, you're pro-ing is all fixed!"  Wreka chirped out.  

Roose smiled. "Thanks a lot Wreka.  You guys, how about we take a break and come back some other time?" Roose asked, directing his question at the other repairers.  

Yamagi nodded and under his breath, whispered, "I'm getting really bored in here too…"  

Zero nodded and pleaded with Kizna to take a break and come back for the pro-ing later.  After arguing with her for about five to ten minutes, Kizna gave in and they all left the hanger. 

  
Once out in the hall way again, the group wandered aimlessly for a bit.  Clay tapped Saki lightly on the shoulder and indicated something up ahead.  Saki turned her head and smiled.  As she was walking, Saki "accidentally" pushed Kizna from the side, making her land on Zero, who was walking right beside her at that time. Both blushed a bit, but didn't show any other emotions.  They continued walking.

"Hey! Lets all go to the-- aahhhh!!" screamed Zero as he was pushed into a near by closet with Kizna following right behind him. They both landed hard on the floor, and the door to the closet shut behind them, locking them inside the closet.  

  
  
"That was your great idea that Wreka has been telling me about?" said Yamagi, between fits of laughter. "That was pathetic!"

  
  
"I know it was, but it was the best I could think of in such short notice." Said Clay, making sure the two in the closet wouldn't hear him.

  
  
"But we have to let them out before lights out. Otherwise they will be spending the night here... and knowing Zero, he will bang on the door till it breaks down…" Said Ikhny, backing away from the door of the closet. Kizna started banging on the door to let them out, but it was useless. They were locked in there. Then Kizna got an idea.  
  


  
"You guys forget that I'm a repairer! I have everything I need right here!" Kizna shouted to the rest of the repairers.

  
  
"Damn, I forgot about that." Said Clay.  "But not to worry, I got it all covered." He pressed the pad lock on the door, and set it to open when it was two hours before lights out. Until then, the door wouldn't open.

  
  
"Hey Saki, how would we know if they got together or not? I mean, there are no cameras in the closet or anything, and I don't want to wait here for another 3 or so hours, leaning against this door to hear anything either." Said Wreka, turning to Saki for an answer.  
  


  
"We will know when they come out. They would be acting different if anything happened.  We'll just have to wait." Said Saki.  "For now we just have to make up an excuse." Saki said looking at Wreka.

  
  
"Hey, sorry about that Zero, Kizna. I accidentally fell and didn't mean to push you two into the closet." Said Wreka.  
  


  
"Yea, and I'm really sorry you guys." Said Roose, trying to act like he was sorry. "My foot accidentally got caught and closed the door." Yamagi was snickering behind him, laughing at the pathetic excuses they came up with.

  
  
"Zero and Kizna, sorry about this, but it seems this door has a pad lock on it, and it won't open up until two hours before lights out.  So we can only get you out then." Said Clay.

  
  
"Don't worry Kizna, we'll be here and extra five minutes before the time is up to get you two out." Said Saki.  
  


  
Kizna growled and started banging on the door again. "Let us out of here!"  Kizna banged on the door for a bit, but finally realized they wouldn't get out of the closet till the others let them out. So it was no use breaking her hands trying.  She heard the others outside say good- bye and walk away.  Once they were gone far enough, she quieted down and rested her head against the doorframe.  
  
"I am _so_ going to get back at them this time!!" said Kizna, in an angry tone.  "So many cheap excuses! HA!" Kizna huffed.

  
  
"Why are you going to do that? Now we don't have to worry about hiding from them." Zero whispered.  He got up and wrapped his arms around Kizna's waist as he pulled her back further into the closet.


	6. 06 Locked in a Closet

Partner or Lover Part 6: **Locked in a Closet**  
  


  
 Kizna felt a pair of hands lightly travel down her back and then wrap around her waist pulling her back farther way from the closet door.  Her back pressed against a hard chest and she felt a pair of lips touch her ear.    

  
"Hey, it isn't that bad is it?" Zero whispered into Kizna's cat- like ear.

  
  
"I guess not..." Kizna drawled, relaxing back into Zero's arms.  After a few minutes in that position, she got onto her feet and started pacing around the _unusually spacious_ closet.  

  
  
"Stop pacing around…" Zero whined.  "Your making my head spin."  Zero tried to feel where she is to grab a hold of her arm but only caught air.   

  
  
"How can you be dizzy if you can't see me?" asked Kizna, stopping her pacing to glare at him.  Even in the dark, Zero could feel her eyes upon him and he didn't bother to answer, taking notice that she was not in a good mood.  He sighed and sat down on the cold floor.  
  


_' It looks like we're in an empty closet. I can't feel anything else near me, so I don't think we're in a janitor's closet… or any other utility closet for that matter,' _thought Zero as he squinted his eyes trying to see if he is able to see anything else in the dark.  Zero got up, and started groping the walls, looking for a light switch or something similar to a light switch, but to no avail.

  
  
"Hey Kizna, do you have a flashlight with you?" Zero asked as a light bulb went off in his head.  He heard the movements stop for a second, and then the movements continued.  Apparently, Kizna had stopped abruptly and the rustling sounds Zero heard again was Kizna searching through her pockets.  

  
  
"Here you go." She said, once she got her hands on a tiny flashlight. She switched it on and illuminated the whole closet.  She handed Zero the flashlight.    
  


  
"Wow…" whispered Zero, as he gave a wolf whistle.  He surveyed the size of the closet they were in.  "I didn't know that closets were made to be this big.  I thought this was a cleaning closet or something."  

The candidate and his repairer found themselves in a _very_ spacious closet, and it was not totally barren, but with no conspicuous way out.  No holes, or vents in the closet that the teenagers could see.  There was a small crack under the door that let in a shred of light, but not enough to see anything in the closet.  The crack allowed the constant flow of fresh air into, and out of the room.  
  


  
"Where did they lock us into?" asked Kizna with an astonished look on her face

.  
  
"They locked us into a closet," said Zero in a-matter-of-fact tone.  Kizna just rolled her eyes at his antics.

  
"That wasn't funny," Kizna said pouting.  She started pacing around again.   

  
  
"Oh come on… If your going to sulk until dinner time, it won't get much done you know," said an exasperated Zero, trying to make her stop her pacing.

  
  
Kizna stopped pacing once again and walked over to Zero, standing in front of him.  She sighed and took a seat beside him on the cold floor.  _'Oh well, it's no use trying to get out now. We're locked in from the outside and the padlock on the outside can only be opened from the outside. I just hope our friends do really let us out by dinnertime.  I guess it's not so bad being stuck here with Zero, I mean, I can be suck here with Hiead instead…' _Kizna shuddered at that thought. '_Or worse… Azuma! I'd kill myself in that case!_' Kizna thought grimacing.  She turned her head and took a look at Zero, looking him up and down.  

"What?" He asked, once he felt her gaze on him.  He laid the flashlight on the floor and made sure it was facing them so that the light illuminated their side of the room.  

  
Kizna shook her head and lightly rested her head against his shoulder closing her eyes as she did so.  She felt his body heat radiating off of him and she snuggled closer.  

  
Zero turned his head away, but immediately turned back around and looked down in surprise when he felt Kizna pressing into his side.  Seeing Kizna rest her head on his shoulders with her eyes closed brought a fuzzy feeling surging into his heart.  He smiled and wrapped one arm around her shoulders pulling her closer to him, and he rested his head on top of hers, breathing in the sent of her hair. He closed his bright blue eyes, letting the sound of their breathing mingled together lull him into a light sleep. 

  
----

  
  
The gang of seven backed away from the closet slowly, nervous smiles plastered onto their faces.  They heard banging from inside and Saki's eyes widened in shock.  _'What if the door breaks down?' _she thought, starting to have second doubts about her once flawless plan… or so she thought it was flawless once upon a time.  

  
  
"Man, Kizna is sure persistent.  She won't give up," Saki said with an astonished tone.

  
  
"But that's just like her.  She won't stop until she gets what she wants," Ikhny said with a small smile on her face.   '_That's the Kizna I know… always the persistent one…' _

The banging finally stopped and they heard murmuring from inside the closet.  Saki slowly crept back over to the door of the closet and was about to place her ear against the door when Tukasa stopped her and shook her head in a silent 'no'.   

  
"Give them some privacy," said the very perceptive, yet silent girl.   

"Yea, we shall interrogate them when they come back out," said Wreka with an evil grin on her face.  Yamagi just shook his head at all this nonsense.

  
"Uh… just _how_ will you interrogate them when they come back out?" asked her partner- Roose.

  
  
"We will think of something when they get here. But for now, I just want to get some desperately needed sleep.," exclaimed an all-of-a-sudden- sleepy looking Wreka as she headed off in another direction.

  
  
"Wait up!" screamed the rest of the candidates, as they ran after Wreka.

  
  
After catching up to the blue haired girl, the seven of them decided on something they all agreed to do until dinnertime.  After arguing on what should be done, they finally decided to go and do their own thing, meeting back at the front of the closet around dinnertime.  Each of them went in a different direction, some went to the pro- ing hanger, and others went to the recreation room, etc…

----

  
Kizna and Zero were fast asleep, with Kizna's head on Zero's shoulder. Her cat-like ears perked up a bit getting a 6th sense for danger. Kizna's eyes opened up slightly, taking in her surroundings, and then she turned back to the sleeping form of Zero.  She closed her eyes and concentrated on the unfamiliar sound that she heard earlier, her ears twitching in anticipation.

  
  
Zero slowly awoke because he didn't feel Kizna's head on his shoulders anymore and wondered what was going on. His blue eyes looked around the darkened room trying to figure out where Kizna was. He finally spotted her sitting right next to him.

Kizna felt a light tremor under her and she grabbed Zero's hand as a reflex.  She felt him grip back at her hand and with his other hand; he switched the flashlight on again.  

Once everything was stable and calm again, Kizna released her grip on Zero and relinquished his hand.  She felt him wrap his arm around her again, his arm encircling her waist, pulling her closer to his body.  Soon the side of Kizna's body was pressed up against Zero's chest, his lips pressed against her ear, slowly trailing down towards her cheek.  

"Zero… what are you doing?" she whispered, her eyes slowly closing on her.  She took in the sweet sensations she got from Zero's lips and let him continue.  

"Can I?" Zero whispered huskily into Kizna's cat-like ear.  He felt her ear twitch ever so lightly in response.

"Can you what?" Kizna whispered back, her voice thick with emotion.  She felt his lips go back down her cheek.  

"Kiss you…" Zero said as he crushed his lips against hers, all kinds of feelings surging though his body.  He didn't let her respond back to her question, but he knew she did not mind because soon she was kissing him back with equal passion.  

Zero pulled back slowly, savoring the taste of Kizna's lips on his own.  He cracked his eyes open a bit to take a look at her.  He found himself staring into her bright, sparkling eyes.  Zero smiled and lightly kissed her cheek again.  

Zero's bright blue eyes were glazed over with emotion; turning is eyes to a dark blue, misty color.  Kizna stared into Zero's now dark blue, almost black eyes.  She felt her heart thumping in her chest and unknowingly, she leaned a bit closer to him.  

  
The light shined off Kizna's face giving her an angel like look.  Zero saw her leaning in, her lips brushing over his cheek.  Zero again felt his brain being overloaded with so many feelings, and now he could not think straight.  With his arm still around Kizna's waist, he took his other hand, placed it on the other side of her waist, and lifted her.  He placed her on his lap and he ran a hand through her pink curls.  Kizna rested her head on his shoulder, leaning in onto his chest as she did so.  

Zero felt something soft press up against his neck and he shivered lightly.  He looked from the corner of his eye and saw pink hair.  He closed his eyes as he felt the feather- like feeling trailing down his neck.  Zero rested his head against the back wall, a small smile on his face.  _'It isn't so bad being locked up in a closet…'_ Zero thought, grinning.  

Soon he felt the soft, feather-like touch pressed up against his lips and he cracked his eyes open.  He saw Kizna stare right back at him and he grinned against her lips.  He saw her close her eyes and he followed.  Running one hand down her back, the other hand went behind her neck as he applied a little more pressure onto her lips.  A minute later, the couple broke off for some air.  

"Wow," Zero whispered.  Kizna grinned.  She brought her lips and placed them on his cheek.  Kizna slowly placed butterfly kisses along his jaw, over his cheek, down his neck, back up to his ear where she whispered, "I love you Zero."  

Zero pulled her face back up to his and stared into her eyes.  He could feel her breath on his lips and he wet his lips with a quick flick of his tongue.  He moved his lips closer to hers and when he was about a millimeter away, he replied, "I love you too."  Once again, he touched his lips to hers for a gentle kiss and gently stuck his tongue out for a taste of her tantalizing lips.  Before he could do so, Kizna's eyes shot open and she pulled back immediately.  

Zero's eyes opened in shock and wonderment as he gave her a curious glance.  His eyes turned back to a light, sparkling blue as he stared at her tense demeanor.  

"What's wrong? Was it something I did?" Zero said with a hint of nervousness in his voice.  "If it was, I didn't…. I wasn't thinking straight… I'm sorry," he started to ramble.  

Kizna shook her head and kissed him gently on the cheek.  "No, it's not that, I heard something," she explained as her ears perked up once again.                               

     
  
Kizna jumped onto her feet and her eyes widened when she heard a loud crash near where they were. The crash threw both Kizna and Zero against the opposite wall with a sickening thud.

  
  
Zero immediately scrambled onto his feet, despite the pain shooting through his head and shoulder.  Fortunately for him, he was sitting so there was less damage caused to his body.  But for Kizna, it was a different story.  

He ran over to where he thought Kizna landed, but on the way, he stepped on a cylindrical object and fell backwards.  Since it was dark, he couldn't see anything.  Zero searched the floor for the thing that he slipped on and found that it was the flashlight he had earlier. _'Must have turned off when the crash came.  I don't remember turning it off.' _He held it in his hand for a second, and then flipped it on.   He saw the still form of Kizna slouched in a corner and rushed over to her.  _'KIZNA!'_ His mind screamed, worry starting to seep into his heart.

  
He saw slight movement and a groan coming from Kizna.  He gently cradled her in his arms and asked, "Kizna! Are you ok?" while checking her over.  

  
  
"I'm fine, but my arm's not," said Kizna as she gave her arm a go.  As soon as she tried to move it, her face twisted into one of extreme pain.  

  
"Looks like you might have broken it when you fell," Zero said, picking up her arm gently.  Kizna grimaced.  

  
  
"Great observation skills Sherlock!" snarled Kizna a bit too enthusiastically.

  
  
"_Sorry!"_  Zero said with an exasperated tone.  He looked over her arm to see if she needed medical attention right away.   "Man! Where are the others when you really need them?" screamed Zero, as he walked to the door and started banging on it.  "Why the hell did they have to lock us up in here!?"

"Zero, it's not their fault, they didn't know this would happen and neither did we.  And Zero, that won't help," Said Kizna as she watched him bang on the door with an amused look plastered on her face.

  
  
Zero turned back to her and said, "Yes, but we need to get you out of here now and if there is someone out there, the might be able to get some help if they hear me banging," Zero explained, looking hopeful for a moment.

  
  
"I wish that was possible but Clay locked us into a closet where there is a set lock to it, and Clay is the only one able to unlock the closet. So we are stuck in here until he comes and gets us out of here," said Kizna, her face slightly saddened.

  
  
"Don't worry!" Zero said walking over to Kizna.  He knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him.  "I'll get us out of here," He stood up and glanced down at Kizna one more time.  He saw her raise her eyebrows at him and he smiled.  "Watch," he said with a note of power and authority in his voice.  

  
  
Kizna watched Zero as he walked back over to the door.  "Don't do anything stupid.  Come sit down here," Kizna offered as she patted the floor beside her.  Zero shook his head and kept his eyes fixed upon the door in front of him.  

  
  
He turned around and just frowned. "I said I'll get us out of here and that's what I plan on doing.  Anyways, we have to get you to a doctor soon.  That arm does not look too good.  Clay and the others could be anywhere on GOA but you need help right now, so I have to bring this door down," Zero said with a determined face.  

Kizna's eyes widened.  _'That's what he's planning on doing!'_  "Zero! Don't try to act tough! You know that door will not come down!" Kizna exclaimed.  He didn't respond back.  

On the count of three under his breath, he ran towards the door, turning to the side so that his shoulder was perpendicular to the door.  Zero rammed his shoulder into the door in an attempt to bring down the metal barrier.  Zero growled under his breath out of frustration and let loose a string of curses.  He tried again and again; at least five more times before taking a break.  He got fed up and kicked it the door, making it vibrate.  
  
"ARGGHHH! That's it!! I've had enough!" screamed Zero, walking back to where Kizna was seated.  

"I told you so," she said with a smug smile on her face.  He stopped in front of her and glared at the pink haired girl.  

"I _will_ bring the door down," he growled.  He walked over to the other end of the room, as far away from the door as possible.  Zero swiftly turned around and ran towards the door one last time, hoping that he could bring the door down this time because his shoulder was getting a bit sore.  Zero felt the room get hot around him and he pushed his body to the edge.  

His hair slowly turned a light turquoise color, adenine pumping through his veins.  With a burst of speed and strength, he rammed into the door and he heard it groan under the pressure.  He lifted his shoulder off the door and pushed back down, the door leaning away from him.  Zero pulled back once again, took a few steps back and used his other shoulder to crush the door.  It was pulled off its hinges, hanging, on the verge of falling.  Zero, panting lightly, walked back to Kizna, his hair slowly turning back to the normal chocolate brown that it is supposed to be. He helped her up, and when they got to the loosely hanging door, he kicked the rest of it down with the base of his foot, and both of them walked out.

  
  
As the two teenagers came out from the closet, they saw their friends turn the corner and run up to them.  They all had shocked looks on their faces; obviously they thought no one could knock down the door.  

The nine teenagers heard an announcement come on saying, "Please head to a room near you for safety.  This is not a drill.  This is an emergency.  The hallways are not safe as of now.  Please head to the room closest to where you are located."

  
Saki ran towards Kizna asking Zero- more like forcing Zero- to talk and tell her what happened.  Zero told them that Kizna needed to see a doctor immediately because her arm was broken.  

"Move out of the way," Zero barked, as they complied.  Zero picked up Kizna, one hand under her legs, the other supporting her back, and ran down the hall heading towards the medical wing of G.O.A.  The other candidates and repairers were hot on their trail, running behind Zero with the same destination in mind.

  
On the way there, Zero ran past Azuma, but he didn't stop to explain himself.  Azuma caught sight of Zero running past him and stopped to look at what was going on.  He soon saw the other candidates and repairers running past him and Clay finally stopped in front of him.  
  


  
"Sorry sir," Clay said, giving a slight bow towards Azuma.  "I know we are supposed to be in a room right now, some where safe, and we are going there right now."  Clay didn't offer any other explanation as he bowed his head in respect once again.  He immediately took off running after the others, not daring to take a backwards glance.  Azuma narrowed his eyes a bit, then shrugged his shoulders, and walked in the other direction, checking if anyone else was not in a room where they would be safe from any random attacks to GOA.  

Zero ran down the hallway carrying Kizna in his arms all the way to the medical room, or where ever they take the injured.  
  


_(Rewritten: 02/19/04)_


	7. 07 Zero and the art of Repairing

  
Partner or Lover Chapter 7: **Zero and the Art of Repairing**__

  
  
Kizna moaned in pain as Zero ran down the hallway carrying the injured Kizna in his arms. "Don't worry Kizna, we're almost there." Said Zero, as he grinded his teeth in frustration.  With a burst of energy, he ran down the last hallway and ran into Dr. Rill's office.  
  
"DOCTOR! WHERE ARE YOU?" Zero screamed at the top of his lungs, as he entered the room.  Even his friends, who were a few hallways down, heard him scream.  Dr. Rill came out from her office and saw the hurt Kizna in Zero's arms.  Zero heard the door slam shut behind him.    
  
"Oh," Dr. Rill stated, staring at Kizna's slowly- turning- blue arm.  "How did this happen?" Dr. Rill asked Zero as she took Kizna out of his arms and placed her on a near by bed.  She rolled up Kizna's sleeve, exposing the pale skin on her arm and examined the injured arm.

  
Zero could not very well tell the doctor they were locked up in a closet when this happened, so he made up another excuse.  "We were walking back to our rooms when the attack caught us by surprise.  Kizna was thrown against the wall, and she injured her arm," said Zero.  His ears perked up at the sound of a door opening behind him.  He turned his head and saw his friends enter the room.  

  
Clay caught his breath and asked how Kizna was doing.

  
"She will be fine, but she will need to refrain from using her left arm for a while.  It looks like she has managed to break the bones in her arm and it will take a few weeks to get better."  Dr. Rill stood up and started walking towards a room in the back. 

"What do you mean refrain from using my arm for a few weeks?" Kizna said, shocked.  "What about the pro-ing repairs and everything?" 

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them," said Zero, smiling sympathetically.  

Kizna blinked at him, then started laughing.  "HA! Are you sure about that? The other day, you did not even know what a wrench was."

Zero nodded.  "I'm sure.  Right now you need to get better so you can take over repairing as soon as possible," he said, winking at her.  Kizna sighed and gave a forced smile as she tried to sit up.  By accident, she applied a bit of pressure on her broken arm and let out a painful scream as she collapsed back onto the bed.  

Dr. Rill turned around when she heard the scream. "Don't try to move either.  Any action right now might hurt the arm, making it worse than it already is."  
  
"Doctor, how long will I have to wear the cast?" asked Kizna, as she warily eyed the cast that Dr. Rill was holding.

  
"Oh, don't worry about it… only for about three to four weeks.  That should be long enough.  But if you do damage your arm again, then you might have to wear the cast longer than necessary," said Dr. Rill as she came over and tried to slowly slide the cast onto Kizna's arm. Kizna gritted her teeth in pain, waiting until Dr. Rill was done placing the cast upon her arm.

  
Zero looked at Kizna's pained expressions, walked towards the bed and tried to comfort her with words.  "Don't worry Kizna.  A month will be over before you know it! I don't think Azuma will make you work that hard anyways, since your arm is broken," said Zero, as he gave her a flashy smile trying to get a laugh out of her.  Zero just got a glare from the pink haired girl.

  
"Azuma better not make you do any strenuous activities with your left arm, or you will be in an even worse shape," said Dr. Rill as she made a mental note to talk to Azuma.

  
Dr. Rill finally moved back into her room and let Kizna take her rest.  When the girls noticed Dr. Rill's absence from beside Kizna, they moved over to where the doctor was standing and crowed around their hurt friend.  The three girls managed to kick Zero out of the circle that had formed around Kizna's bed, eliciting a few protests from the brown haired boy.  

  
"Hey-" Zero started, before he was pushed out of the way by Saki, who took his spot and started asking Kizna how she felt.  
  
Zero sighed as he sat down on the hard floor of the medical room in Indian style (cross- legged).  He leaned his back against the hard wall and closed his eyes for a brief moment.  The other boys in the room came to his side and sat themselves down beside Zero.  Clay glanced at the clock on the wall.  In all this commotion, they hadn't realized that time passed so quickly.    
  
"Maybe we should get going back to our rooms.  There is about half an hour between now and the time when the lights go out." Clay said to the others. "Dr. Rill?"  Clay called out.  Dr. Rill came back out from her room and raised her eyebrows in Clay's direction.  

"Yes Clay?"  
  


"I was wondering, since it is late already, do you think we should stay here for the night, or is it safe enough to head back to our rooms?"  He asked pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  

  
----

  
"We have to retreat _now!"_  screamed Erts, as he got ready to attack the approaching victim.  "There are too many to fight off right now and we don't have time to spare finding their leader!"  Erts took a quick glance around him and saw that the rest of the goddess pilots were in just about the same shape he was- overwhelmed with the victim attacks.

  
"I agree, we can't stay here or we'll be annihilated," exclaimed Rioroute, as he sliced up another victim by chopping it clean down the center. "Plus I'm starting to get tired," he whined.  His whining immediately stopped when he saw another victim coming his way, getting ready to attack him.  _'They must have seen their friend get chopped up or something,'_ Rioroute thought, getting into an attack position.  

  
"Rioroute! Stop whining and help us get rid of these disgusting bugs!" screamed Gareas as he blasted a few victims, which were heading his way, into a million pieces.  A chunk of a victim landed on his goddess' face and he cringed.  With a scowl on his face, he moved the goddess' arm to her face and wiped it off.  

Letting out a sigh, Gareas turned towards the white goddess where Teela was located.  "We can not keep fighting like this! There is just an overwhelming number of victim out here and we very well cannot take care of all of them right now.  We have been fighting for how long now?"  

He continued talking without waiting for a response from any of the other four who were out there with him.  "And my energy is almost depleted! Let's retreat for now, and –" Gareas was cut off by a scream from Erts' direction.  "Erts? Erts!" He did not get a reply from the blonde haired boy.  

"ERTS!" Gareas screamed when he took a sidelong glance over to where Erts was fighting.  

  
Erts was getting attacked over and over again by the victim surrounding him, and it did not look like the victim were going to stop attacking any time soon.  He had no time to attack back because they continually attacked him, slowly killing him. By now, Luhma Klein was in dangerous shape.  Gareas flew over to Erts, his eyes wide in shock. It was almost like a deja vù over again. He shook himself of his shock and ran over to Erts' side to help him out.  '_He's only a boy, he does not deserve to fight like this,'_ Gareas thought with a somber look. 

   
Erts was panting heavily, as he gave a shallow smile to Gareas, saying he appreciated the help. The two goddesses took care of the victim near by and started to head back to G.O.A.

  
" All right! Everyone retreat for now," said Teela, giving as sigh as the five goddesses headed back to G.O.A. to get some well-needed rest.  Teela on the other hand, had some other business to take care of.  
  


----  
  
A loud crackling noise could be heard throughout G.O.A.  An announcement came on saying, "The attacks have passed for now.  Please return to your designated rooms.  Lights out in half an hour."  A small clicking noise could be heard, and then silence followed.   

"Well Clay, there is your answer," Dr. Rill said, smiling.  "You might as well head back.  Though, Kizna will have to stay the night because her arm is in no condition to move, even with the cast on."  The candidates, one by one, said bye to Kizna and left the medical wing, heading back to their rooms.  

  
"Get better soon Kizna.  Classes just will not be the same without you," said Ikhny, giving her a small smile.  "I will stop by in the morning."

"There's no need to do that," said Dr. Rill as she walked back into the room carrying a tray full of medicine bottles and other objects.  "I suspect if Kizna takes enough rest tonight, she will probably be better by tomorrow afternoon, allowing her to leave.  But she will have to be very careful when moving her arm though."  Dr. Rill came over to Kizna and helped her sit in an upright position without her hurting her arm. "There you go. There is one last piece of medicine you have to take, then I'll let you rest in peace," said Dr. Rill, as she tilted Kizna's head a bit and brought a vile tasting liquid to her lips.  Kizna opened her mouth and swallowed the liquid, then lied back down on the soft bed.  

   
  
"Why don't you girls head on back to your rooms, and I'll see you guys later tomorrow?" said Kizna, as she used her good arm to wave back at them. They smiled, and wished her a speedy recovery as they headed out the door.  Saki stuck her head back into the room and said, "We will be coming back here to see you in the morning, whether you like it or not!" Kizna grinned.  She closed her eyes, tried to push the pain out of her head and attempted to go to sleep.  
  
The halls were empty as the candidates and repairers headed back to their designated rooms.  As they were walking back, Zero started complaining about having to go to the bathroom and told them there was one down the hall.  "I'll go now.  You guys can continue without me.  I'll just catch up to you guys later," Zero said, ushering them forward.  The rest of them nodded and left him to go about his business.  Zero turned the corner and walked forward a few steps.  After waiting for a minute, he turned around and peeked around the wall to see how far the rest of his friends were.  _They are far enough,_ Zero thought.  He quietly tiptoed in the other direction that they came from and headed over to the medical room.  

  
A pair of red eyes watched Zero until he entered the medical room. The red- eyed boy turned around and retreated to his room for the night.  

  
Zero moved through the dark medical room looking for where his pink haired partner was.  
  
Kizna could feel something was not right, so she opened her eyes and stared into the darkness. She saw a figure stare back at her, and she was about to let out a scream until she saw the light from a few stars reflect off a pair of blue eyes that could only belong to one person she knew.

  
"Zero…" she whispered into the darkness. "What are you doing here? You know you can get into trouble, for coming here without Dr. Rill knowing?" she chided.

    
"Don't worry about it," whispered Zero as he placed a finger on her lips to silence her.  "I just wanted to see how you were feeling. I didn't get much time to ask you how you were before the rest of the girls pushed me out of the way."

  
Kizna smiled and lifted her good arm to caress his cheek.  "Well, that is very sweet of you.  Here, sit down beside me," she said, patting the empty space on the bed.    
  
Zero sat on the bed, trying not to touch her left arm. He took her right hand and squeezed it, trying to give her some reassurance. "Don't worry, you'll be better in no time," said Zero as he stood up.

  
He leaned down and kissed her forehead before turning around and starting for the door. "I better go; it's almost lights out.  I hope you get better...love," he added. It just felt natural for him to say that.  Without a backwards glance, he walked out of the room and back to his quarters.  He made it just in time to see the lights go out, and climbed into bed, trying to get a few hours of sleep.  
  
Kizna smiled at what he called her, and watched his back retreat out of the medical room. She closed her eyes, her heart at ease; she fell into a deep sleep.  
  


----

  
_Over the next month: _

_Hiead had come back a few days later; from the time he got his punishment, and started training again. _

_Zero and Hiead fought each other relentlessly. They were getting better and better at each passing day. Zero helped Kizna, now more than ever, to repair his pro- ing because of her injured arm. He learnt almost everything there is to know about repairing a pro- ing because he mostly did the work, Kizna just overlooking him.  _

_They rest of the candidates and repairers still didn't figure out that Zero was with Kizna and tried to get them together at every chance they got.  Zero and Kizna did try to sneak out sometimes to see each other.  _

_Clay still lost very early in the fight, but was getting better.  Zero helped him train when they did not have classes, and sometimes Roose tagged along with them.  _

_Azuma was not as cranky as before and went a bit easier on the boys ever since the candidates and the repairers started working together- like a team… except for Hiead and Ikhny.  He still wouldn't accept help from her, and kept pushing her away.  _

_The other candidates made fast progress with the help of their repairers.  Repairer and candidate got closer together than before, and helping Kizna "hook up" Zero made their friends realize that they needed each other in order to succeed.   It would do no good if the repairer was doing something while the candidate did something totally different.  _

_It was as if the repairer and the candidate made one entity… one could not function properly without the other.  That was what Hiead needed to learn before he became a goddess pilot._     
  
Kizna was in a rush to get to the medical room.  She was finally getting her cast off.  Unfortunately, her arm did not heal as quickly as she expected, and it took about a month to heal.  She was not every happy about it, and neither was Azuma for that matter.  Rushing into Dr. Rill's office, she called out to the doctor.  Dr. Rill came out from her room asking what was wrong.  

"I'm here to get my cast off," Kizna replied, her breathing slightly jagged.  Dr. Rill smiled.  

"Must have been hard for you," she said, trying to make a small conversation as she asked Kizna to sit on the bed.  Kizna nodded and waited patiently for her cast to be removed.  After a ten-minute wait, Kizna got the cast of her arm and she slowly moved it up and down a few times, testing it first.  She did not want to break it again, only to have to wear the horrid cast once again.  

The next day, the repairers were waiting in the battle room as usual.  Hiead came in with a stern face.  Yamagi, Roose, Clay and Zero came running in five minutes later, Azuma walking in behind them.  
  
Zero walked towards Kizna, catching his breath. "That was close!" he exclaimed.

  
"It's always 'close'," said Kizna, shaking her head.  

Zero pouted in response. "It's not my fault… I don't get up as early as you girls do… I need my beauty sleep," said Zero, giving a very lame excuse.

  
"Ha… ha… You?" Kizna asked, raising an eyebrow. "Need beauty sleep?"  Kizna laughed.  She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Your already handsome enough for me.  If you get any prettier, then other girls might start chasing after you, and I don't think that would go down to well with me."

  
Zero blushed in response.  Kizna gave an innocent grin and walked over to the other repairers as they took their seats at the consoles.  The rest of the candidates got into their pro- ings, went onto the field, waiting for Azuma to give them directions.

  
"Now I want to see how well you boys work together," said Azuma, scanning the field with his eyes.  "Candidates 87 and 88 will pair up and will go against the rest of you wimps.  Let's see how well you hold your ground."  The repairers got ready and the battle started when Azuma gave the signal.  
  
"Hiead, you go for Roose and I will go for Yamagi and Clay," said Zero, heading off.  Hiead just grunted in response.  
  
"How about _no_ Enna?" said Hiead glaring at Zero.  "I will beat up these wimps myself.  You might break a nail if you do so." Zero's eyes widened for a split second.  Then he growled in anger at Hiead.  

  
Azuma's voice was heard echoing in their pro-ing's again.  "I forgot to mention that except for 87 and 88, the rest of you have modifications made to your pro- ings, that will make them faster, and more agile.  AND, one candidate cannot take out the enemy by himself. He was to work with the rest of his group," Azuma said directly to Zero and Hiead.  

  
With that said, the boys resumed their 'battle'.  Yet again, Zero and Hiead started to argue, their tempers rising very quickly.  Hiead was testing Zero, and the red-eyed boy knew exactly what he was doing.  

  
"Zero, WHAT in the world do YOU THINK your DOING?" screamed a fuming Kizna, trying to get his attention off of Hiead and on to her.  Her voice raised higher and higher with every word she said.  The whole battle room got quiet.  The repairers looked at her in shock and worry.  Zero looked shocked, blinking a few times.  Hiead just glared at the pink haired girl, and the other three boys on the battlefield covered their ears in agony.  

"Woman, shut up!" Hiead gnarled.  Kizna glared right back at him.

"Stay out of this Hiead." She turned towards Zero and he shrunk back under her look.  "Zero, stop fighting with Hiead.  YOUR battle is with THEM!" she exclaimed, pointing a finger at Yamagi, Roose and Clay.  "NOT with Hiead.  If you keep doing this, you will never be a goddess pilot," Kizna said in an indifferent tone.  She huffed and sat back in her seat with a satisfactory smile.  

Azuma looked at the verbal war with interest.  _'Well, at least Towryk has Enna under control.  He will need her if he wants to become a pilot. Definitely a fine choice for pilot if he controls the arguing from now on,'_ Azuma thought, with a trace of a smile on his face.  

  
Zeros eyes widened when he heard Kizna's sharp voice yelling at him.  _'I should not have expected anything different from her,_' he thought as he brought his fists back down to his side.  "Your right Kizna. Thank you," he whispered so that only she could hear him.  

Zero looked at the ground below him for a second, and then took a quick glance at the three in front of him.  He shot forward catching the other candidates by surprise.  Unfortunately for Zero, he could not knock any of them out, even Clay, because their speed and agility had increased.  Zero was barely able to scratch them before they disappeared from his view.

  
Zero let out a sigh of frustration and tried to attack again. "Hiead, can I get some help –" Zero was cut off as he was pushed into a boulder behind him.  He closed his eyes upon impact, and then opened them to see who his attacker was.  "Yamagi," Zero snarled.  "You'll pay for that," he said, pointing an accusing finger at him.  

  
Hiead watched the whole thing with an amused look on his face.  Then he himself tried to attack the others, but did not land a single scratch on them.  He kept on attacking, but could not land a punch on Clay, Roose or Yamagi.  His temper rose every time he missed.  He was fuming by now.  _'I can't make a fool of myself!'_ he mentally yelled, as he tried to attack again.

  
Ikhny just sighed and shook her head. She knew it was no use trying to talk to him; he would not even take a second glance at her. But lately, he was acting strange.  She saw him staring at her for short periods of time. Before, he never even made eye contact with her, but he had been staring at her for the past few days. She just passed it off as him staring off into the distance, her just happening to be in his line of sight.  He was still as arrogant as ever before.  
  
Zero finally got through to Hiead and told him that they would have to work together to beat the rest of the candidates.  Hiead finally gave in, and came over to Zero.  
  
"What do you propose we do Enna?" Hiead spat, giving a look of loathing towards the brown haired boy. Zero lifted himself off of the boulder and stood up.  

  
Zero just made a face back at Hiead. "I don't want to do this anymore than you do, so let us just get it over with," said Zero, putting on a straight face.  "How about, we attack each one together? We can take them by surprise."  Hiead nodded, not bothering to argue.

Back in the control room, Azuma walked over to Kizna's control panel and gently nudged her to the side.  She gave him a confused look but did not say anything.  His fingers flew over the pad with astonishing speed, and finally a loud beeping noise was heard echoing through the room.  "What did you do?" Kizna asked incredulously.    
  
"All right, let's…" Zero trailed off when he saw his surroundings starting to change.  "What- what's going on?" Zero said as his hands flew around the boulder for support.  Soon, the boulder disappeared right out of his hands and he stumbled around for a bit, looking for some sort of support.  There was Hiead in front of him, but Zero was not _that_ desperate.  "Kinza! What's going on?" Zero asked in a nervous voice.  

"You'll have to see for your self Enna," Azuma replied for Kizna. 

"What do you mean by that? Did u do this???" Zero asked, his facial features starting to twist together.   

"Get a grip Enna," Hiead spat.  "Do not be such a wuss if you are going to be in my presence."  Zero shot him a glare.  

"What is that over there?" Clay asked, flying over to Hiead and Zero.  

"The battle is still on.  It would do you good to remember that," Azuma said once again.  Zero squinted his eyes and took a look into the distance. 

"It looks like a group of… VICTIM!" Zero screamed as he tried to move away.  Hiead made a guttural sound and got into a fighting stance.     

"What do I do?" Clay said, gripping onto Zero's arm until it turned blue from the blood loss.  

"Clay, let-go-of-my-arm…" Zero said through clenched teeth.  

"Sorry."  

"Let's do this," Zero said, turning towards the victim.  "After we beat them, then we can go back to our battle."  The three other boys nodded.  Hiead just grunted in response.  Zero rolled his eyes.  

A victim zoomed past Zero, its tail accidentally slicing through his arm.  Zero's eyes widened and his hand flew to his forearm.  "What the… Kizna, that was not supposed to hurt was it?"  

"Zero, Azuma made some changes.  I'm not sure what he did, but apparently, the attacks will feel real. So be careful," she said, a hint of worry was noted in her voice.  Kizna's hands flew over her control panel, changing a few things on the pro-ing so that Zero's pain would decrease.

"Great," Zero mumbled as he charged for a victim heading straight for him.  Zero reached for his power blade, activating it.  Letting out a scream, he went all out, slashing and cutting any victim around him.  He took out around ten victim before another group came at him, this time, with twice as many.  

Yamagi came to the rescue, flying in right before the victim surrounded the two boys.  Yamagi, beam rifle in hand, and Zero, power blade in hand, both back to back, nodded at each other and took out the victim together, matching move for move.  Now all that was left around the two were victim guts and a whole lot of debris.  

"Kizna," Zero whined. "Is there any way to make it stop?"  He heard Azuma laugh.

"It will only stop when you beat all the victim that are out there."

"When is that? How many are there anyways?" Zero asked, looking a bit worried.

"You'll know when you beat them all.  There are not that many victim out there if you compare it to the real thing.  This would be child's play.  You have almost beaten half the group."  Azuma said the last part a bit reluctantly.    

"Alright then.  Let's get this over with!" Zero said, as he flew over to the next group of victim coming their way.  

Hiead watched Zero from a distance while he handled his own group.  "Only fools rush in head first," he muttered coldly.

Sweat rolling down Zero's face, he surveyed the scene around him.  The group of five had fought for a good ten minutes, but the victim seemed to come from thin air, never stopping.  Zero saw a blur zipping by him; he moved to the side just in time.  He turned his head to get a proper look at what he saw.  He heard a scream coming from his other side, and he whipped his head; almost snapping his neck in two in the process.  "What was that?"

"Roose!" Clay screamed as he rushed on over to his friend who was tangled up with five other victim which were surrounding him.  

"Help!" Zero heard a muffled cry.  

"Roose," Zero whispered as he flew in the direction he saw Clay going a few seconds ago.  Zero scrunched his face in concentration and tried to make his pro-ing go faster.  All of a sudden, he crashed into something hard, sending him flying back a few feet.  "Argh…" Zero moaned as he looked ahead of him.  "Hiead?"

"What are you doing?" Hiead snarled.  

"What does it look like?  I'm trying to help Roose, now get out of my way!" Zero yelled.  Hiead rolled his eyes.  He flew over to the brown haired boy and grabbed onto his shoulders.

Hiead brought his face down to Zero's, his red eyes penetrating into the boy's blue eyes.  "Think Enna, _think_," Hiead whispered dangerously.  "If we go help them now, we will have to battle them later.  If one gets wasted now, we will only have two to take down," Hiead growled.  

Zero got silent; a serious look on his face.  _'Should I let my friend be beaten by a victim or should I save him now and fight him later?' _Zero's eyes trailed down to his feet.  He realized Hiead had not released his shoulders from his grip yet.  

Zero looked at Hiead and whispered out a cold, 'No'.  Hiead gave him a slightly confused look.  "I am not leaving my friends to fight of the victim themselves.  If this were the real battle, I would not leave my friends like that.  If we have to fight them after we fight the victim, that is fine with me.  However, until then, we work together as a team.  The _five_ of us," Zero said seriously.  

Hiead growled and gripped Zero's shoulders tighter.  "What don't you get? We will have one less weakling to fight.  Your pathetic friend will be fine.  This is a dumb _practice battle _with the victim.  Not the real thing!  It does not matter.  When the time comes, you can be a hero and go save that wimp," Hiead barked out.   

Zero growled back at him.  "Let me go," Zero said, his eyes narrowing.  Hiead relinquished his grip on Zero and he pushed Hiead aside.  Zero flew over to Roose, top speed, and helped Yamagi and Clay with the victim.  After Roose was untangled, and the victim, beaten, they moved on and took care of the rest.  

Finally, the five boys beat their enemy and their surroundings slowly started to change.  

"A moron," Hiead muttered under his breath as he shot off towards an unsuspecting Roose.  Hiead balled up his fist and crushed it into Roose's chest, sending the green haired boy flying back into a pile of rubble.  

"That's not fair…" Roose groaned out before collapsing back down onto the rocks, exhausted.  

"One down, two to go," Hiead said as he charged for Clay.  Clay felt his body freeze in place as he tried to move.  His nerves were getting the best of him.  From his peripheral vision, he saw Yamagi flying straight for him.  __

'_He's not attacking me either… is he?_' Clay thought, panic starting to seep into his thoughts.  Hiead was about a foot away from him when Yamagi turned to the side and rammed his shoulder into Clay's pro-ing.  Both of them were thrown to the floor, Hiead zooming right above their heads.  

"You idiots!" Hiead snarled.  He stopped flying for a second, landed on the ground and ran for them again.  Clay scrambled up onto his hands and knees and crawled away as fast as he could.  He went behind a rock and almost immediately heard the booming voice of Azuma echoing throughout his pro-ing.  

"Candidate 87! What do you think you are doing cowering behind the rock like that? Get out there and fight!" Back in the control room, Saki just sunk lower into her chair and covered her burning face with her hands.  Clay heard some rustling sound beside him and whipped his head in the direction of the sound.  

"Boo!" Clay's eyes widened.  He scrambled back to his feet, turned around, and got ready to run.  He heard laughing behind him.  In front of him, Hiead appeared without warning and started walking in an intimidating manner.  

"Yamagi! I can really use some help now," Clay shouted.  He heard a groan from near by, but hoped Yamagi was in good enough shape to help him out.  Clay turned his head back once more and saw piercing blue eyes stare right back at him.  He turned to the front, and saw burning red eyes stare at him.  Clay saw Hiead bend lower, then push off the ground, flying straight at him.   

Clay panicked and did what he did best when in pro-ing battles… run.   He flew as fast as his pro-ing could take him and took a quick glance behind him.  He saw Zero's pro-ing gaining on him.  It was obvious Zero was testing his pro-ing's limits; the pro-ing was straining under Zero's power.  He willed it to go faster and soon caught up with Clay, flying right beside him.  Zero winked at him for a split second and then raised his arm.    

"How…" Clay muttered as Zero's elbow came crashing down onto Clay's back.  He was sent crashing into the rocky ground with a sickening thud.  Clay let out a soft moan and lifted his head once again.  _I will prove everyone wrong.  I am stronger than I look,_ he thought, with a determined look on his face. He turned his head to the side and propped his upper body onto his elbows.  Clay's eyes widened as he realized whom he landed beside. 

There on the ground beside him, Yamagi was groaning in pain, holding his midsection.  '_Great, now I'm the only one left…'_Clay thought.  '_The irony of it all._' 

Climbing back up onto his feet, Clay looked out for any sign of the other two boys.  He groaned and rubbed his back as a sharp pain shot through his back, down his spine.  "Man that hurt."  Unbeknown to him, Zero was creeping up on Clay, and all of a sudden, he jumped onto Clay's back, wrapping his arms around Clay's neck, and his legs around Clay's waist, knocking him down.  Zero rolled off of Clay but kept him pinned on the ground with one arm.  Hiead walked over, blade in hand, and disabled Clay.  

"The battle is over," said a stoic Azuma.  He turned around and walked away from the big glass window and stood by the door.  

  
"Yah!! We did it!" screamed Zero as he jumped up and down in the air, throwing a fist up as well.  Hiead just shook his head at Zero, turned around, and walked back out from the battle site.  He walked back into the control room, while Roose and a gleeful Zero helped Clay and Yamagi back inside.  Roose and Clay were congratulating Zero on a job well done, while Yamagi sulked in a corner.  If he was happy for Zero, he did not show it.  

  
Hiead walked past the repairers, stopping for a split second to glance at Ikhny out of the corner of his eye, and walked out the door like usual, because he could not stand to see Zero gloating over something very insignificant.  Azuma just stared at his retreating figure. He knew, even if he asked Hiead to get back in, he wouldn't so he decided to ask his meek, brown haired partner. It was worth a shot.  
  
"You," Azuma said, pointing at Ikhny. "Bring back your partner."

  
"Yes sir," Ikhny said in a shaky voice.  She ran out the door and caught up with Hiead.

  
"Hiead, wait.  Azuma said you have to come back in." Ikhny could hear her own voice quiver as she tried to speak to the sliver haired boy.  Even though she whispered her statement, Hiead's sharp ears picked up on it and he let out a throaty growl; threatening her to come closer to him.  She paid no attention to his threats.  She walked right up to him, and placed a shaky hand on his shoulder, making him stop in his tracks. "I- I don't want to get in- into trouble with Azuma.  Can you p- please come back in- inside?" Ikhny stuttered out as she pleaded with him.  

  
Hiead's red eyes glowed with fury. _'How dare this girl touch me!'_ thought Hiead, as he turned around and grabbed her shoulders.  He pushed her up onto a nearby wall, bringing his face inches away from hers.  He could feel her breathing increasing rapidly.  He smirked and started talking in a whispered tone.  
  
"I don't give a _damn_ about Azuma.  He can go fuck himself for all I care.  And I don't need some know- it- all repairer telling me what to do.  I can take care of myself.  If you didn't listen to a word I said, then at least get this though that thick skull of yours… I. Don't. Need. Your. Help.  I don't need anyone's help.  Just leave me _alone_.  And don't try to help me cause you can't help me," said Hiead in a deathly cold voice, as his body towered over the petit girl who was now shaking.

  
As Hiead turned around and walked away from his partner, his conscience started to nibble at him.  Scared brown eyes keep flashing in his minds eye, and his facial features turned into one of annoyance.  '_Why the hell does she keep coming back to mind?_' Hiead screamed in his head.  _'Argh!_' Hiead huffed and stopped walking for a second.  Then he said two words that changed Ikhny's whole perspective on Hiead. 

He grumbled and strutted back to his sleeping quarters.  

Before he left, without glancing back at his repairer, he whispered three words to her. _"I am sorry."_  He didn't know what made him say it but he knew his conscience would bother him till no end if he didn't.

  
Ikhny slid down the wall and ended up sitting on the hard floor, her legs folded underneath her.  She stared wide - eyed at the retreating figure of Hiead, shocked at what he said to her.  She sat there trying to persuade herself that she misinterpreted what she heard because it was out of character for Hiead to say _that._

----  
  
Kizna watched the door close behind Ikhny and a few seconds later she saw the wall shake slightly, a thump following it.  Unfortunately Azuma did not hear it, and took no notice of her when she tried to get his attention.  She knew Hiead did something to Ikhny… that was the only explanation she could come up with as to why the wall shook right after Ikhny left the battle room.  She was anxious to get outside and see what was going on, but knew if she left without Azuma dismissing them, she would get Zero _and_ herself into some deep shit.  She waited as patiently as she could until Azuma was done talking and dismissed them.

  
Kizna bolted out the door; her eyes wide open, trying to spot a head full of brown hair. She saw the brown haired girl staring into space with a shocked look on her face.  "Ikhny?" Kizna asked, kneeling down beside the shocked girl.  "Are you alright?"  Kizna grabbed the other girl's shoulders and tried to shake her out of her dream- like state.  "Ikhny, snap out of it.  You're starting to scare me..."  
  
Ikhny finally snapped out of her trance and looked at Kizna as if she grew another head.  "Kizna, Hiead said sorry..." Ikhny said, trying to believe the words herself.  
  
"Huh?"

  
"Hiead said he was sorry," Ikhny stated once again.

  
"Hiead would do no such thing. Are you sure you're feeling ok?" asked Kizna.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine Kizna," Ikhny said as she brushed Kizna's hands off her shoulders.  "And I don't think I was hearing things. Before he left, he said he was sorry and then walked away," Ikhny said in a slightly confused tone.  Then she started explaining what happened with her and Hiead, after she saw the hallways were cleared.

  
"Ok, whatever you say.  I'm not sure I believe you, thought I would have to see it for myself.  If he actually apologized then something must be terribly wrong with him.  It is out of his character to apologize to anyone."  Kizna shrugged her shoulders after declaring her theory.  "Come on. We have to go now anyways. You cannot sit in the hallways all day you know," said Kizna, giving a little chuckle afterwards.

  
"Your right, let's go. And I have a lot of work to do on the pro- ing," said Ikhny, smiling at her best friend. Kizna smiled back as they walked to the pro- ing hanger.  
  
They entered into the hanger and went to their respective pro- ings to fix them.  Zero was tapping his foot, with a bored look on his face.  
  
"Hi," said Kizna approaching Zero.  She stopped by the toolbox for a second and got the tools she needed to fix the pro- ing.

  
"Where were you?  You just ran out of the room after Azuma finished talking," said Zero as he took a few tools out of her hand.  

  
"Oh, I was looking for Ikhny. It sounded like Hiead got mad again and blew up at her. I went to see if she was alright," said Kizna, getting annoyed at the way Hiead treated everyone all the time.  "You know, you could have started working on the pro- ing without me. You know practically everything about the pro- ing now."  Kizna gave a slight smile towards Zero, proud of his accomplishments.

  
"Yea, I could have, but I wanted to leave the work to you seeing that you might have missed repairing because you didn't help for a whole month," said Zero grinning back at her.  
  
"How very thoughtful of you," she said, giving him a sweet smile.  Then she raised an eyebrow in his direction.  "You really think I would have missed repairing the pro- ing? You're the one who's always damaging it, therefore you should be the one repairing it," Kizna said poking a finger into his chest.  
  
"Oww… that hurts!" whined Zero, faking a painful look on his face.  Then he changed the topic.  "So, is Ikhny alright now?" asked Zero, his tone- somber.

  
"Yeah, she's fine. I will tell you want happened… later," she said giving a small smile and winking. Zero felt the blood rush to his cheeks in response.  
  
After a few hours of slaving over the pro-ings, the group of candidates and repairers headed out towards the mess hall to get lunch. Hiead was there, and if Zero saw him, he made no indication that he caught sight of Hiead.  

----

Kizna finally got some time alone with Zero and told him to meet her in the recreation room a half an hour before lights out.  She knew she was taking a big risk because she was not sure if anyone would be in that room or not, but she decided to go ahead and meet him there anyways.  They continued on with their day, heading off to class with their other friends.

  
By the time dinner came and went, the group was dead tired and everyone, or mostly everyone, headed back to their rooms to get a good night's sleep.  

Kizna looked around the darkened room and saw Ikhny and Saki fast asleep.  Their light frames moved up and down with every breath they took in and released.  Kizna was pretty tired herself, but not as much as her friends were.  She still had some energy left to spare.  She slipped out of bed and got dressed before tiptoeing out the door.  She took a peek into the room next to hers- where Wreka and Tsukasa were sleeping- and was relived to see that both the girls were fast asleep.  
  
She walked to the recreation room without anyone noticing her and went in quietly.  She blinked a few times and waited for her eyes to adjust to the bright light in the room.  She looked around and was startled to see Zero already there waiting for her.  He was leaning against the tree in the middle of the room, one leg on the trunk of the tree, giving him some support.  

  
"Zero, how did you get here so fast?" Kizna asked, her eyes wide in curiosity.  Frankly, she wasn't expecting him to be here this early.  Zero just chuckled in response.

  
"I just left earlier," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  He smirked as Kizna took a seat on the soft grass, patting the seat next to her.  He took a seat next to her.  She let her mind wander for a few minutes as Zero just stared at her profile.  A stray piece of hair landed on Kizna's face and Zero pushed it back from her face. That got her attention.  
  
He smiled at her as he stared, taking in her beauty.  Kizna broke his trance by talking again.  
  
"So, you're probably wondering what happened with Ikhny and Hiead right?" asked Kizna, looking back into his bright blue eyes. He nodded.  
  
"Ok," she started, taking a deep breath.  

"I came out after Azuma let us go and I saw Ikhny sitting down on the floor, with a shocked look on her face..." Kizna said.  She told Zero exactly what Ikhny had told her, and she told him how she had seen the wall shake while Azuma was talking.  Silence enveloped them after she finished speaking.  

Zero finally spoke up after a minute.  "You're kidding… Hiead would say no such thing. He never apologies to anyone," Zero exclaimed, trying to believe what his girlfriend just told him.  He stared at her in shock, his mouth hanging open.  
  
She just nodded.  "He did, believe it or not. Ikhny told me and I think I know her well enough to know that she won't lie to me on such matters," Kizna stated.  
  
Zero smiled. "Well I'll be damned.  I'll get him to confess later…" Zero lied on his back, his body pressing down on the soft soil, as he plotted out what he would do to get back at Hiead and how to get him to confess that he did indeed say _that_ to Ikhny.  "I'll beat it out of him if I have to…" Zero muttered to himself, thinking that Kizna did not hear him.    
  
"You'll do no such thing!" said Kizna, slapping him lightly on his chest as she too lied down beside him. His eyes widened as he realized she heard him.  He propped himself up on an elbow, looked back down at her and raised an eyebrow.  

He let out a wicked grin and asked, "And why not?" as he leaned in a bit closer.

  
By now he was whispering to her. "Because, it wouldn't be nice," she whispered back, not thinking straight.

  
He smirked in response. He knew he was making her uncomfortable like this, and he knew at that moment he had total control over her and he enjoyed it. He brought his other hand over and traced her cheekbone with his finger. "You know, Hiead isn't nice to me, so why should I be nice to him?" he asked, waiting for her response.  
  
"Because-" whispered Kizna, but got cut short because Zero asked her a question.  By now he was practically sprawled over her, feeling her breath on his face. He was staring at her lips, as his thumb grazed over it. Kizna shivered in delight. She stared into his eyes, getting captivated by them.

  
He looked into her eyes and whispered, "Can I kiss you?  I never got a proper answer from you last time."  He grinned sheepishly at her.

Kizna blushed in remembrance.  She nodded her head and slipped her eyes closed.  Zero leaned in slowly and caught her lips with his, sending an electrifying jolt through both their bodies.  Zero closed his eyes and savored the taste of Kizna's lips on his. She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck, as his arm that he was leaning on, moved to the back of her head and his other arm, to her waist.  He wrapped a leg around her legs, pulling her body closer to his.  He felt his hand unconsciously- or so he thought- move up and down her side, fingering the hem of her shirt.  

Zero could feel Kizna's fingernails rake his skull, sending shocks of pleasure through his body.  He rolled on top of her, but was careful not to crush her under his weight.  He broke off the kiss and his lips trailed down her neck.  

  
Unfortunately their time got cut short as they heard the loud slam of a door being closed.  Kizna heard the door of the recreation room slam shut and she immediately pulled herself away from Zero, feeling a blush crawl up her face.  Zero's eyes widened in shock, his body frozen in place for a few seconds.  

He finally got his body to comply and scrambled to get off Kizna, his face turning a bright pink.  Kizna sat up and turned her head so that she could get a full look at the person who entered the room, thinking up a fast excuse in her head.  When she turned to look at who came in, she saw herself staring into a pair of bright red eyes that stared back at her, a grim look on the visitor's face.  
  


**(**_Rewritten: 03/10/04)_


	8. 08 Hiead and Zero Team Up

Partner or Lover Chapter 8: **Hiead and Zero Team Up**

  
A teenager with red eyes took in the sight in front of him.  His lips turned upwards, forming a slightly sadistic smile.

  
He gave a stiff grin and started talking. "Oh, looks like I caught you Enna," Hiead said, a smirk playing on his lips.

  
Zero just growled and stood up, offering a hand to Kizna, but never taking his eyes off of Hiead. "H - Hiead.  What are you doing here?" Zero asked, his voice lathered of loathing.  
  
"Just mind your own business, Enna.  I do not have to give you a reason for my being here, and I should be asking you what you _two_ are doing here so _late_ at night!" countered Hiead, as he raised his eyebrows and walked a little closer towards them.  By that time, Kizna was standing up and had a tight hold on Zero's hand.

  
"What are _you_ doing here Hiead?" Kizna asked venomously.  
  
"Ha. Don't worry your pretty little head about it.  Oh, I thought I'd let you know, I know about the little stunt you're pulling on the others," Hiead said, grinning once he saw the looks they had on their faces.  Zero looked a bit doubtful, with a thoughtful look on his face, but Kizna just looked shocked.

  
Zero recomposed himself and threw an icy glare at Hiead.  "You'd better not tell anyone about us.  You know well enough what Azuma will do if he finds out we are together," Zero said, desperately hoping Hiead would agree not to say anything about their relationship.  Otherwise Zero and Kizna's place at GOA would be in jeopardy.

  
Hiead chuckled and decided to play along with Zero for a bit.  He enjoyed watching Zero squirm under his intense gaze. 

"I'll see," Hiead said.  He turned around and headed towards the door of the recreation room.  Zero ran up and caught Hiead by the back of his shirt.  "Enna," Hiead said in a dangerous whisper.  "Let go of me!" Hiead screamed, pushing the brown haired boy back.

  
"You're not going anywhere until I have _your_ word that _you_ won't tell a soul about Kizna and I," Zero said, crossing his arms as he stood in front of the doors of the recreation room preventing Hiead from leaving.  
  
"If I say yes, then you have to do something for me. All right Enna?" Hiead asked, a malicious grin spreading over his face. Zero growled, but agreed grudgingly. 

After a moment of silence, and a thoughtful look on his face, Hiead finally spoke.  "I don't have anything for you right now, so once I figure something out, I'll let you know," he said, pushing Zero aside as he walked out of the recreation room. Zero watched Hiead's retreating figure with narrow eyes. Kizna came up behind Zero, and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.  
  
"You know, I have no clue what is up with him.  Sometimes, he is in the weirdest moods.  I can never figure out that guy.  He was even acting funny around Ikhny," Kizna said, resting her head on Zero's shoulder from behind.

  
Zero turned around.  "You know, Hiead could have asked me to do something that would deter my chances of becoming a goddess pilot, yet he didn't.  Something fishy is going on.  I'll find out later," Zero said as he wrapped his arms around Kizna's waist, pulling her closer, resting his chin on top of her head.

  
They stayed like that for a few minutes, until Zero spoke again. "I think we should be heading back now," he said, kissing the top of her head lightly. Kizna smiled slightly, pulling away from him.

  
"Your right."  
  
The candidate and his repairer headed out of the recreation room hand in hand, back to their designated rooms. Kizna and Zero stopped by her room first. Before Kizna could enter her room, he squeezed her hand lightly and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek before he let her disappear back into her sleeping quarters.  Zero walked in the other direction, off to his sleeping quarters, and slipped into his chambers trying not to make too much noise.

  
"Finally back are we?" a voice whispered through the darkness, scaring Zero a bit.

  
"Hiead!" Zero hissed into the dark. "What are you doing up anyways?"

  
"None of you business Enna," Hiead said, before he laid down, closing his eyes, trying to get some sleep. Zero followed his example, and _tried_ to fall asleep, but to no avail.  
  
Zero tossed and turned all night, but couldn't seem to fall asleep. He was too worked up about what Hiead was going to make him do, that he could not get a wink of sleep all night. By the time morning came around, Zero would snap at any one that came in his way.

**  
In the morning:**

  
"Clay!!! Get OUT of the bathroom THIS INSTANT!" Zero screamed, as he pounded his fists repetitively over the door that lead to the bathroom.  
  
"What's wrong with you this morning Zero?" asked Clay, walking out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Zero grumbled something, and went into the bathroom, pushing Clay aside.

  
Clay made a face and just stared at the now closed door, wondering what made Zero so cranky. _'Not to self: Talk to Zero later today.'_  
  
Clay dried his wet hair, put on his uniform, and waited for Zero to come out. Hiead had already left, so Clay did not have to put up with the suborn candidate.  
  
**Out in the hallway,**

  
Hiead walked around aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do, since he did not want to be in the same room as Zero when he woke up. _'That boy is too damn cheerful all the time! Gets on my nerves every time!'_ Hiead thought, fuming.

  
Up ahead, he saw his repairer and a few of the other candidate's repairers with her. He just growled in annoyance, as he heard the high-pitched voice of Wreka reach his sensitive ears. His eyes narrowed as he walked past the giddy repairers, and shot death glares at all of them except for Ikhny, who was out in a corner, slightly away from the commotion.  
  
Hiead saw Ikhny turn her head and stare at him for a few seconds as he turned the corner. After he got around the bend, he tried to shake out all thoughts of those babbling repairers out of his head, but Ikhny's face just wouldn't leave his mind. _'Is she trying to torture me, or something? Why won't she leave me ALONE??'_ he thought, his own voice screaming in his head.  
  
Hiead walked towards the recreation room, and slid the door open. He walked in and the door closed behind him with a silent whoosh. Once inside, he sat under the tree that was in there, the same tree that Kizna and Zero sat under before. His head hit the trunk with a loud thud, but he felt no pain.  
  
Even if he did, he didn't bother to voice his pain.  
  
He just sat down, staring into space, trying to sort out his thoughts. But it was no help for him. The same picture of his repairer's face kept flashing before his eyes, never letting him get a moments peace.  
  
The silver haired boy closed his eyes, and wondered what was going on with him. _'How the hell am I supposed to fix this problem if I don't even know what the damn problem is?' _he thought, as he felt the boiling rage fill his veins. His eyes still closed, and eyebrows knitted together in fury, he raised one hand, and pounded his fist against the ground beside him in frustration. He let out an audible sigh, and tried again, to sort out his thoughts about the brown haired repairer.  
  
All he knew was that he felt an immense sense of pleasure fill him when he saw his repairer smile, or laugh, but then again, it was very rare to see her smile when he was around. And when it did happen, he got scared of his feelings and covered it up with anger and rage towards her. He didn't want to admit it, but he took a liking to the timid repairer.  
  
The last time he pushed her into the wall, he felt his heart taken over with grief, and pain, upon seeing his repairer cowering in fear because of him. He didn't know why he felt that way, but he knew he had to apologize to her; otherwise his conscience wouldn't stop bothering him.

  
But his pride wouldn't let him, so he made it up with a simple sorry.  That way, it would satiate both him and his 'conscience'.  
  
All the thoughts of what happened these past few days played over and over in his head. Kizna slapping him.... pushing Ikhny against the wall.... what Kizna said about him needing his repairer…  That certainly got him thinking.

  
_'I won't admit it as of now, but I think she might have been right about Ikhny,'_ Hiead thought, finally opening his eyes. _'True, without her, I would have had to repair the pro- ing by myself. Sure I can figure it out, but it saves me the work. And she even gave a little help out there when I needed it.'  
_  
Then all of a sudden, his thoughtful expression turned into one of scorn and malice. He felt some bile rise up his throat as soon as he realized he was having benevolent thoughts about his repairer.  _'Why am I even THINKING about HER like that?? SHE is my REPAIRER and all she has to do is REPAIR! I DON'T need HER help now, and I WON'T need IT later!'_  But even as he said that over and over in his mind, he was having second thoughts...  Even though he admitted that she was "worthy" enough to be his repairer, in his mind, his pride wouldn't let him accept this fact.  
  
Hiead growled in annoyance, trying to get these frustrating thoughts out of his head, but they wouldn't leave him alone. Class was about to start anyways, so Hiead got up, dusted himself off and walked out of the recreation room towards his class.

  
***With Zero and Clay***  
  
Zero stepped out of the shower, with half of his uniform on. He grabbed the top of the uniform that was lying on his bed, and slithered into it. Then he saw Clay still sitting on his bed, staring at Zero with a weird expression.  
  
"What?" asked Zero, looking down at his clothes, making sure if anything was wrong with them and to check if that was what indeed what Clay was looking at.  
  
"Never mind Zero," Clay said, realizing that Zero was back to his normal self, and walked out the door. After a few minutes, Zero decided to chase after Clay and find out what he was talking about.

  
"Clay come back! Tell me what you were going to say!" Zero whined, running to catch up with Clay, but Clay was too far ahead of him. Zero stopped running in the middle of the hallway, and spotted Kizna in a hallway perpendicular to the one he was in.  
  
Since no one that he knew was around, he ran up and snuck behind Kizna, wrapping his arms around her.  He felt a sudden urge to spin her around and kiss the daylights out of her.   
  
Kizna let out a small yelp, and turned around as soon as she felt a pair of arms snake their way around her waist. "Zero!" she hissed, her eyes widening with shock. "What if someone spots us here? What if Azuma comes down this hallway?" she said, trying to get out of his arms. But that just made him wrap his arms around her more tightly.

  
He saw an empty classroom beside them, pulled her inside, and the door closed behind them automatically. _'Ha! At least this is better than a closet!'_ he thought, laughing inwardly.  
  
Kizna turned her head slightly and saw the grin on his face and asked him what was so funny. He pulled her a little closer towards him, pressing her back up against his chest.  He could feel her shoulder bones pushing into him, but it didn't bother him.  "I was just thinking that the classroom is much better than the closet we were locked up in," he said laughing.

  
Kizna smiled at that thought and turned around in his arms. Kizna's breath got caught in her throat as she realized how close she was to Zero. A faint blush took over her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around his neck.  
  
Zero stared down at her, bringing a hand up to her face, caressing her cheek with the palm of his hand. He pulled her a bit closer, bending down, and placed his lips over hers. He closed his eyes and Kizna followed suit.  
  
Zero pulled her closer, drinking her in as if she was a drug that he never got enough of.  The hand that was previously on her cheek went back down to her waist as he deepened the kiss. He no longer knew where he was, only that he was kissing Kizna.

  
Kizna felt Zero pull her closer to him, fully enjoying the feeling of being in his arms and kissing him with so much passion. There was nothing stopping her, no Azuma, no Hiead, and no other person. She lifted on of her hands from his neck, and ran it through his soft brown locks. Though Kizna knew they couldn't continue like this even if they wanted to.

  
She pulled back, taking in deep breaths. Zero did the same, except had a confused look on his face. Kizna saw his look and gave him a smile. "As much as I would like to continue, we can't, we'd be late for class otherwise," she said, giving him a tender smile, and placing a chaste kiss on his lips, before slipping out of his arms and heading towards the door.

  
Zero stopped sulking and followed her towards class. On the way there, he saw the rest of the repairers up ahead, and soon saw Kizna run off to meet them. So Zero decided to find the rest of the candidates and head off to class with them, not wanting to be around squealing girls.

  
***With Hiead***

  
Once Hiead arrived in the classroom, he saw Ikhny with Kizna, laughing about something Kizna said. Hiead all of a sudden, felt an overwhelming sense of calm, and pleasure fill him, as he looked towards Ikhny in a new light. As soon as she saw him standing in the doorway, she became silent, her lips forming a thin line on her pale face.  
  
Hiead's heart immediately closed up, and he realized that _he_ was causing her that pain, that she was truly afraid of him. Even though Hiead had his poker face on on the outside, on the inside, it was like a raging battle, with no end in sight.

  
It hurt him to see her hurt because of him, and wanted to take back everything that he ever said to hurt her, but he couldn't. His damn pride was in the way. 

Not wanting to show anyone what torture his brain was putting him in, Hiead walked past Ikhny and Kizna, shrugging them off coldly.

  
By that time, Zero and Clay entered with the rest of the candidates and Azuma, finally giving him some time to get his thoughts off of Ikhny and on to something else. _'At least if my thoughts keep bothering me, I can always take my frustration out on Zero,'_ Hiead thought, smirking.

  
Hiead turned towards the door when Azuma walked in, and saw Zero pestering Kizna with something. He smirked, thinking back at what happened the day before. _'Maybe...just maybe, I might be able to use Enna to vent out my problems, and anyways, he'll forget it by the next day, so it won't affect me. But I still wonder if I should go through with it...'_ Hiead thought. He thought he could tell Zero about his problems, maybe get some help, though he would never admit to Zero that it was his own problem, and that Zero would forget about it by the next day.

  
_'It's worth a shot…'_ Hiead thought grudgingly.  
  
Hiead started walking over to Zero, only to be stopped by Azuma's sharp voice. He was talking to someone who just entered the classroom. Azuma turned to the group of repairers and candidates, and started speaking to them.

  
"It seems that a problem has aroused. I hope you won't take it too hard when I say there will be no class today," he stated, smirking at the shocked looks his class of ten was giving him. "Now get out of here!" Azuma said, sending them all out the door.

  
The door closed behind the last person, locking Azuma and the stranger inside the classroom. "You were saying?" Azuma started, with a morbid tone, turning towards the person he was talking to earlier.

  
***Outside, in the hallways with the candidates and repairers***

  
All the repairers decided to have a girls day out, so they all headed out in one direction together, leaving the candidates by themselves. Roose and Yamagi headed over to the pro- ing hanger to catch up on some training, and Clay went with them just to make sure they didn't screw up anything. That just left Hiead and Zero together for the day.

  
_'This is just way to easy for me,'_ Hiead thought, looking over to Zero, in the corner of his eye. '_It's as if someone is setting me up with him just to get this whole soap opera stuff over with.'  _"Enna, can I talk to you, some where more private?" Hiead asked, turning around to face him.

  
Zero just raised his eyebrows in response. Hiead sighed at the dense boy. He grabbed Zero's arm and dragged him in the direction of their sleeping quarters. Once there, he pushed Zero inside, and closed the door.

  
"Look Enna, I don't want to do this, but this is my only choice unless I want ALL of GOA to know about my problem."

  
Zero looked shocked. "YOU have a PROBLEM???? Who would have thought the great Hiead having a PROBLEM!"  Hiead just glared at him in response.  
  
"Well, I know what I want you to do for me," Hiead stated, coving up his emotions, once again, with his poker face.

  
"And that is…?" asked Zero with his eyebrows raised and a slightly smug look on his face.

  
"Don't get too cocky!" Hiead snapped. "There has been something bothering me for quite some time..." Hiead started, sitting on his bed, which was across from Zero, and where he was sitting.

  
Hiead told Zero, from beginning to end, what his problem was, including every detail in his explanation. Starting from the time Zero and Kizna got together, a good month and a half ago to be exact, and how his brain was torturing him, never letting him get a moments peace, up till present day. When he was finally done, Hiead gave a great sigh, and Zero just blinked in response.  
  
"What?? Can you please repeat that over again? You sort of lost me at the beginning…" Hiead just glared at Zero.  
  
"It took me long enough to explain it to YOU. I don't want to have to go through that experience again," Hiead growled.  Zero feigned a hurt look.   
  
Zero put his hands up in mock defense. "Sorry!! I'll help you though. I can't believe you were going through all that... and I thought you had no heart too!"  That just caused Hiead to shoot a death glare at Zero.  "Well at least that explains the odd behavior Kizna was telling me about," Zero stated, looking Hiead straight in the eye.

  
"Ok. So what can YOU do to be of service for me?" Hiead said, picking out his choice of words very carefully, not wanting to admit that he needed help to sort out his problem. Zero got a thoughtful look on his face, and started talking about the plan he had.

(_Rewritten: 4/17/04)_


	9. 09 Locked in a Bedroom

Partner or Lover Chapter 9: **Locked in a Bedroom  
**  
"Ok. So what can YOU do to be of service for me?" Hiead said, unwilling to admit that he needed help to sort out his problem. Zero got a thoughtful look on his face, the palm of his hand supporting his chin, and started talking about the plan he had formulating in his head.  

Zero patiently waited for some feedback. When he got none, he continued explaining the basis on which he formed his plans.  "You just have to show her you care about her. But just don't force all of your feelings on to her all at once… that just might make it worse than it is. You have to show Ikhny that you respect her for what she does and who she is, which is being a repairer," Zero explained.  
  
"Just start of by treating her nicer than you do currently. Then, start talking to her about anything that you want to, and get to know her a bit better," Zero said.  
  
"Ok... I think that just might work," grumbled Hiead regretfully, with a distasteful look on his face because he was taking help from Zero.  
  
"All right then, let's get started shall we?" Zero exclaimed jumping up from the bed, and walking towards the door.  
  
Hiead's eyes widened, as he too jumped off the bed and followed Zero. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.  
  
"Of course I'm sure!" exclaimed Zero, marching down the hallways towards where the girls would be. Hiead just tentatively followed Zero, glaring at his back the whole time.  
  
Once they found the girls, in the recreation room of all places, Zero started to walk in, only to be stopped by a hand pulling him backwards.  
  
"What's the big idea Hiead?" asked Zero, his eyebrows knitting together as he brushed off Hiead's hand from his shoulder.  
  
Hiead glared, and then answered, "I don't think this is such a good idea... and it will ruin my image." Zero just laughed at that.  
  
"Oh come on... you're not scared of a bunch of girls are you?" Zero teased, poking a finger into Hiead's chest.  
  
Hiead snarled, turned around and walked away from the recreation room. "No, I just think this is a bad idea. How about I do it on my own time?" Hiead asked, not turning around.  
  
"Fine! Be my guest," Zero shrugged, as he ran to catch up with Hiead. Then they both headed down to the pro- ing hanger, to have a one on one battle.  
  
Once they entered the main room, they could see Roose and Yamagi in a battle of their own, with Clay monitoring their pro- ing status from inside the control room. 

*

*

Done with their battle, Roose and Yamagi came back out, dragging their sweaty bodies from the metallic machines.  They walked inside and saw Zero and Hiead waiting for them.  
  
"Hi you guys!" Roose said, walking up to greet them. "If you came to battle with us, your out of luck, cause I'm all wiped out!" said Roose, collapsing onto the floor.  
  
Zero just smiled, while Hiead snarled. "Who would want to battle with you wimps anyways?" Hiead growled, walking towards his pro- ing. "At least Enna here can put up some sort of a defense against me," he said while smirking.  
  
Hiead suited up, and went onto the field, waiting patiently for Zero to come there.  
  


----  
  
Kizna just stared into space as she heard the girls gossiping behind her. She felt footsteps behind her, and a few seconds later, a soft body moving to sit right next to hers. She turned her head slightly, and saw that it was Ikhny who came. She turned her head back and stared out the window, like she was doing previously.  
  
"You know, sometimes I wonder about Hiead..." Ikhny started, trying to start a conversation, with her closest confidant.  
  
Kizna was startled out of her revere, not expecting Hiead to be their main topic in the conversation. "What about Hiead is bothering you?" Kizna asked, finally turning her head all the way, to get a good look at her friend.  
  
"Well, it's just that he's so cold and distant all the time, and when I try to help him, he just pushes me away. But recently, he's been acting really weird... staring at me from time to time, and when I ask him about it, he just glares at me and ignores me again. I don't know what to do..." said Ikhny, staring out the window like Kizna was doing earlier, deep in thought. She went on and told Kizna some of the other unusual things she caught Hiead doing too.  
  
"Well, apparently, you're starting to rub onto him, and he's taken a liking to you Ikhny," Kizna grinned, giving a playful nudge to Ikhny. But Ikhny didn't react to her, and Kizna realized it was time to get serious.  
  
"But really Ikhny, I think you should just give him time. He'll open up to you in due time.  It already seems to me that you've snagged a soft spot in his heart for you, since he's not yelling at you all that much recently, but like I said, just give him time to get his feelings sorted out. I think all this must be frustrating for him because he's always cold, distant, and detached from everyone and he probably hasn't felt anything close to love, for anyone in a long time," Kizna stated, looking over to see the other girl's reaction.  
  
Ikhny looked over at Kizna, and gave her a small smile. "Thanks Kizna. You always know how to make me feel better. I knew I could count on you, when I needed advice on anything," she whispered, as she got off the grass-covered floor and joined the other girls again.  
  
Kizna smiled as her eyes followed Ikhny's retreating form. She got up and decided to go and look for Zero, since she was tired of hearing Wreka going on and on about the latest gossip on GOA.  
  
She walked past the girls, and waved her hand at them, signaling that she was leaving.  
  
"Kizna! Where are you going?" Saki asked, interrupting Wreka in the middle of her speech.  
  
"Oh, well I'm going to look for Zero, I'll be back after I find him... I just wanted to ask him something," she said_. 'I never lied to them. I do want to ask Zero something when I find him, about Hiead that is... but how long I'll take, that is for me to know and them to find out,'_ she thought as she walked out the recreation room.  
  
She made her way to the pro- ing battle room, knowing that it was Zero's favorite place to be, besides the mess hall and the wing where the goddesses were located.  
  
She walked inside, just in time to see Hiead and Zero get suited up and go onto the field to battle. She went in and stood by Roose, Clay and Yamagi.  
  
"Hey Kizna," the three boys said simultaneously.  Then they immediately turned they're attention back onto the battle that was going to take place.  
  
Once Hiead and Zero were both in their pro- ings, and on the field, they started the battle. Zero immediately rushed at Hiead, trying to land a quick punch on Hiead and knock him out once for all. 

Ten minutes passed, and neither one landed a punch on the other. Both of them were tiring quickly.  Hiead finally landed a punch on Zero and sent him sprawling to the ground.  Both boys were tired out and dripping with sweat. 

Zero growled as he strained to lift his body off the dusty ground. "Your gonna pay for that Hiead!" he said as he once again charged towards the silver haired boy.  
  
Zero felt a rush of adrenaline flow through his veins, giving him a surge of energy, allowing him to go faster.  His felt the tips of his hair heat up and his hair started turning bluish - green at the ends, until his whole head was painted in a soft bluish- green hue. Soon, all Kizna, Clay, Hiead, Roose and Yamagi saw was a blur running around, circling Hiead.  
  
Hiead's eyes widened as he realized Zero was far faster than before and could catch him at any moment. Hiead finally realized that he could barely keep up with Zero's movements.  
  
Hiead immediately felt his muscles tense up and become stiff, his eyes diluting, allowing him to pay closer attention to Zero's movements, or at least the best he can do to follow Zero's movements, since it was faster than he had expected.  
  
Unexpectedly, Zero striked Hiead in the stomach, punching him with force that Hiead had never felt before. Hiead's eyes widened once again, surprised at how good Zero had gotten. _'Fuck! Damn him! When did he become so fast?!'_ Hiead thought, cursing his luck. _'What happened to him? I can barely keep up with his moves. And it feels like he got a power boost or something…  he is twice as strong as he was from before! It's inconceivable…'_  
  
Hiead tried to counter the attack with a punch of his own, but was not fast enough, and just barely grazed the pro- ing suit that Zero was in. Hiead growled in impatience, as he tried again. But his attempts were futile. He could not land a punch on Zero; even if he tried a million times... he just was not fast enough.  
  


----

  
Kizna looked at the battle in front of her. She was surprised to see the EX level of Zero raise above what it usually would.  In her current position, all she could see was a very fast moving object race around the pro-ing, which contained Hiead. She saw Hiead double over because he was punched in the gut, and then try to retaliate after he got his balance back. Realization, that Zero was actually moving faster than Hiead, hit her head on as her eyes widened in shock and her hand moved up to cover her now open mouth. 

  
"Z-Z-Zero, what happened to you? When did you become so fast… and strong?" she muttered, as she saw Hiead falling to his knees, exhausted by the repeated punches that he took to his gut, face, and legs.  
  
Zero took a break from punching Hiead's lights out and offered him a hand to help him up. Hiead threw a glare at his opponent, swatted his hand to the side, and tried to get up himself, only to find that he couldn't because of all the beatings that he taken head on. Zero helped him up without his consent, pulling on Hiead's arm, forcing him to stand up.  
  
"See Hiead? You do need my help..." Zero said in a cocky tone as he started walking back in, heading towards where he last saw Kizna, Yamagi, Clay and Roose. When his eyes caught sight of them, he saw that they were staring at him slack- jawed, shocked at what he had just done. Then they saw a bruised Hiead coming in behind Zero.  
  
"Enna, I'll get you back for what you did - " Hiead started, but ended up in a coughing fit towards the end. Zero turned and looked at how Hiead was doing.  
  
_'I think I beat him a bit too much. I think he might need to go see Dr. Rill,' _Zero thought, as he headed over to where Hiead was kneeling, and tried to stop the coughing fit by rubbing Hiead's back.  "I think you have to go and see Dr. Rill," Zero said, grasping Hiead by the arm and walking him out towards the medical wing. Before he went out the door though, he stopped, turned around and asked the others if they were coming. The four of them were still in a state of shock, but soon snapped out of it and followed Zero towards the medical wing.  
  
Once they got there, Zero placed Hiead on a bed, and called out for Dr. Rill. She came and took a look at Hiead. "What happened to him?"  
  
"OH, Hiead and I were battling with our pro- ings, and I accidentally got carried away..." Zero stated, looking a bit sheepish. Dr. Rill just shook her head, and muttered something about boys under her breath, as she looked for some medicine to help Hiead.  
  
Kizna finally came back to her senses, and walked over to where Zero was standing. "Zero, what happened back there?" she questioned in a curious tone, desperate to find out what was going on.  
  
Zero looked over to her and shrugged.  "I can give you a made up explanation, but to tell you the truth, I really don't know Kizna. I wish I did though. It may have been that extra practice you put me through when your arm was broken," Zero muttered, his voice going an octave or two lower.  The extra practice was not as pleasant as it seemed to be, when Kizna first mentioned it to him.  He continued with his explanation.  "It increased my strength and speed. However, I mean, Hiead and I are doing the same things... I still don't see how I could have beaten him so easily," Zero finished, scratching the back of his head in a slightly embarrassed manner.    
  
Kizna smiled lightly and placed a hand on his shoulders. "You were great out there nevertheless.  I think because you wanted to really beat him you were able to do so.  You just needed more self confidence," she stated.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well, you are very stubborn, and you do have a very strong will," Kizna admitted.  "I guess what I'm trying to say is that, when you want to really do something, and you put your mind to it, you don't stop till you achieve that goal, no matter what the cost. And I guess, your will - power and stubbornness just took over, and you pushed yourself until you were satisfied with the results that you got: winning the battle," she said, squeezing his shoulder lightly.  
  
He gave her a sincere smile. "Thanks Kizna," he said, as he turned and faced Hiead.  
  
Hiead had his eyes closed, but could still hear everything that went on around him. "Hey Hiead, sorry about earlier… I guess I just got carried away," Zero said sheepishly.  
  
Hiead just grunted in response, too stiff to move any muscles. Dr. Rill came back with some medicine, helped Hiead sit up and take his medication. As soon as he swallowed it, he felt darkness take over him, as he closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.  
  
Roose, Clay, and Yamagi had gone back to find the others earlier, while Zero and Kizna were talking, and now Kizna and Zero were the only ones left standing beside Hiead's bed side. Kizna turned around, and headed for the door, deciding to get Ikhny, knowing that the girl would want to stay by Hiead's side, even though she might not admit it. As she was just about to walk out the door, the door opened, and Ikhny came rushing in, almost knocking over Kizna.  
  
"Oh! Hi Kizna, I heard from the other boys what happened to Hiead, and I came to see if he was alright, even though he might not even care..." she said, whispering the rest of her sentence, not wanting any one else to hear.  
  
"It is ok Ikhny, I was just about to come and get you thinking you might want to see how Hiead is doing. Dr. Rill said that Hiead should be back to normal by the morning. The medicine she gave Hiead must be very strong."  
  
Ikhny just nodded in response, not paying complete attention to what her friend was saying. She went over to the bed where Hiead was laying, her eyes roaming over his sleeping form. She sighed and sat on a near by chair, that was placed conveniently beside Hiead's bed.  
  
At that moment, Zero decided to leave them alone for a bit, and dragged Kizna out from the medical wing.  
  
Ikhny watched Hiead's chest rise and fall with every breath he took_. 'He looks so peaceful when he sleeps... No worries, no hardships, and he looks ten years younger... He looks somewhat cute when he is asleep,'_ Ikhny thought.  Her eyes widened slightly, shocked that such a thought would come in her mind.  
  
Her eyes finally rested on his head, and she wondered what it would feel like, to run her hands through his silver hair, knowing fully well, that when Hiead is awake, he would never even let her lay a finger on him. She could not resist temptation any longer, and ran her hand through his silver hair, entranced by its beauty.  
  
_'It's so soft...'_ she thought with amazement, letting her hand rest in his hair for just a while longer. But she knew that when Hiead woke up, and found her like this, he would be furious and she would unfortunately be on the receiving end of his unrelenting fury. So, reluctantly, she pulled her hand out, and just listened to the soft breathing of her candidate beside her.  
  
----  
  
Zero pulled Kizna out of the medical room, wanting to give some privacy to Ikhny. He thought that the other candidates and repairers might still be in the recreation room, and went to see them.  
  
He let go of Kizna's hand once they entered the room, and walked up to the group, with Kizna in tow.  
  
"Hey Zero, Kizna. How is Hiead doing?" Wreka asked, her face indifferent, her voice not really portraying any feelings towards the subject.  
  
"Oh, he is fine, just a bit bruised up here and there. He should be fine by tomorrow morning," Zero said.

Zero thought he heard a distinct 'darn!' from Yamagi's mouth but dismissed it as him hearing things.  
  
"Ikhny did look a bit worried when she got word on what happened to Hiead," said Roose.  
  
"She's fine now. She is probably going to stay there for a while," Kizna stated, a smile playing on her lips. She knew fully well why Ikhny was staying there longer than necessary, but she wouldn't tell anyone unless Ikhny said it was okay.  
  
 Yamagi decided to change the topic. "So, what do you guys want to do for the rest of the day? I'm all wiped out from the pro- ing battle that I had with Roose, so I'm not doing that again today."  
  
"How about we play truth or dare?" Saki suggested. _'This is a great way to force Zero and Kizna to get together, but then again, I don't want to force this upon them...'  
_  
The rest of the group was a bit hesitant when Saki proposed her idea, and their eyes widened at that suggestion. "What's wrong with that? It won't be too bad…" Saki started, an evil glint taking over her eyes as she shrugged her shoulders. "Right?" she asked in a buttery sweet tone.   
  
After contemplating the pros and cons, Kizna spoke up. "All right I'm in, since I have nothing better to do," she said, as she sat down on the ground where she was previously standing.  Unfortunately Kizna did not take notice of Saki's overly sweet tone or her glinting eyes.  
  
"I'm in too," said Zero, following suit.  Being the gentleman that he was, Zero would not leave Kizna alone in this.  
  
Everyone soon agreed, and they were all seated in a circle on the floor of the recreation room. "Ok, then I'll start, since I suggested the game," Saki said, as she made up her mind on who to pick as her first victim.  
  
"Kizna, truth or dare?"  
  
"Um... I'll go with truth," Kizna said, looking slightly nervous.  
  
"Ok, so, what exactly happened that day, when you and Zero "fell" into that closet?" Saki asked, knowing that Kizna would have to tell the truth. Kizna went ahead and told them that they both fell asleep, only to be woken up by the Victim attacks. Saki was very unhappy with that answer, but did not press on further.  Kizna told the truth… just not the complete truth.  No one asked her to explain further, so she did not divulge any other details.    
  
They continued the game for quite a while, hearing things they never wanted to hear, hearing things they never knew, and doing things they would never have gotten the courage to do before.  
  
Soon they got a bit tired of this game, even though it provided some excitement for the time being. They stopped playing after a bit, and started discussing what they could do next, since there was plenty of time till dinner.  
  
"You know, I think I'll go and check up on Ikhny, and see how Hiead is doing as well, even though I really don't give a damn as to what happens to him. It's Ikhny I'm worried about," Tukasa said, as she got up. "I'm going to the Medical room now. Anyone else want to come with me?" she asked.  
  
"I'm coming. I want to see exactly what happened to Hiead. Zero, you must have really done a number on him, to send him to the medical room," Wreka said, as she got up and stood by Tukasa.  
  
Roose got out a pack of cards, and Yamagi decided he'd play with Roose. 

"Where'd you get the cards Roose?" Zero asked, walking up to the two boys.

"He snuck them in," Yamagi answered for the other boy. 

"Really?" Zero clearly looked impressed.  "Past Azuma?" 

"No you dolt! We could bring stuff remember?"  Yamagi sighed in annoyance.  Zero blinked, then shrugged his shoulders and walked away.    
  
After Tukasa and Wreka left the recreation room, Clay and Saki said they wanted to do some research on the goddesses, for some unknown reason, and decided that they would head out to the library that was in GOA. Now, that just left Zero and Kizna with nothing to do again.  
  
In a far off corner of the recreation room, they could hear Yamagi and Roose bickering over a card that one of them played.  
  
"Hey Kizna, what do you want to do?" Zero asked, looking over at her.  
  
"I'm really not sure...do you think you want to work on your anti- gravity sickness?" Kizna asked.  
  
"Sure, why not. But first, I want to stop by my room and get something," Zero said, standing up. Kizna stood up with him, and they both walked out of the recreation room. Roose and Yamagi saw that Zero and Kizna were going some where, so a minute after they had left the room, the two boys stood up and followed them, to see what they were up to.  
  
When the boys went out into the hallway, they started following Kizna and Zero, at a distance, not to be caught by them. As they were sneaking behind walls, trying to keep track of the other candidate and his repairer, they saw Saki and Clay doing the same thing... Following Zero and Kizna.  
  
"What are you guys doing?" Saki whispered harshly, looking over at Roose and Yamagi.  
  
"I should ask you guys the same thing!" Yamagi said in a slightly louder tone.  Roose hissed at Yamagi, asking him to quiet down.   
  
"Oh, we were headed out for the library, when we saw Zero and Kizna leaving the recreation room. So we decided to go and follow them to see what they were up to," Clay said, as the four of them ducked behind another wall, just as Zero and Kizna turned the corner again.  
  
"It looks like Zero's heading back to our room," Clay said. The four pairs of eyes finally saw Zero open the door to his room, and let Kizna in, following her soon after.  
  
Saki jumped up from her spot. "That's it!" She exclaimed. "We can lock them up in the room!"  
  
"Yea, and they have every thing that they need right there," said Yamagi, a smirk on his lips.  
  
"Saki glared back at Yamagi. "That was not funny," she stated, just as Roose burst out laughing. Then she turned her glare on Roose.  
  
"So are we going to lock them in there Saki?" Clay asked, getting up from where he was hiding.  
  
"Yea!"  
  
"Oh, ok," said Clay, as he walked towards the closed door, and pressed a few keys on the keypad that was beside the door, on the outside. He set the time limit for one hour, when it will open again. "All right! Done. They'll be locked in there for exactly one hour," Clay said turning around.  
  
----  
  
Zero went in behind her, and heard the door close behind them. Kizna surveyed the neat and spotless room. "Wow, it's cleaner than I thought!" she exclaimed.  
  
Zero chuckled. Then he heard a soft beeping noise from outside the door, and immediately knew that someone had pressed the key pad that was outside the door.  
  
"Oh shit! Someone's outside," Zero said, as he ran towards the door, trying to yank it open. "It's locked!!" he exclaimed, banging on the door.  
  
He heard someone snickering on the other side of the door, and growled in anger.  
  
"Great! Now we're being locked up in a room, there goes the anti- gravity sickness plans..." Kizna mumbled under her breath.  
  
"Have fun in there you two," they heard someone shout through the door. At that comment, Kizna, who was seated on one of the beds, turned bright red, turning her face away from Zero and the door. Zero was once again, clueless.  
  
Then Kizna spoke up. "You know, that sounded a lot like Yamagi..."  
  
"I think your right," Zero said, his head shooting up to look at his partner. He walked back to the door and started shouting again. "Yamagi! You better let us out now!"  All he got in response was some more snickering, and he sighed in defeat.  
  
He heard the rest of the candidates and the repairer leave from the door, and went to sit by Kizna, who was sitting on his bed.  
  
"You know, I've never been in your room before," Kizna stated matter-of-factly, turning to face Zero. Zero just smiled at her.  
  
After both of them calmed down a bit, they started talking, chatting about anything and everyone that came to mind. Soon, the topic turned onto how Clay would look in a dress.  
  
"Oh, so your saying Clay's gay??" Zero said, trying to act shocked, but knew it wasn't true.  
  
"You know, I don't even know how we got onto this topic, but I don't think Clay would look too good in a dress..." Kizna said, who was now laying down on Zero's bed, her feet crossed at the ankles. "Though on the other hand, I don' t think you would look so bad in a dress you know…" She said, chuckling slightly.  
  
"… Now you're saying I'm a cross- dresser, and I'm gay???" Zero said, glaring at her playfully. Kizna just giggled in response.  Zero got an evil glint in his eyes as he decided to have some fun with his repairer.  

"You know," Zero started as his face became serious.  "I was wondering about that actually."  Kizna shot him a confused glance.  "Whenever I am around Hiead, I get this funny feeling…  I think I might have fallen for him!" Zero exclaimed, glancing at Kizna out of the corner of his eye to see her reaction.  

Kizna did not know what to say… she definitely was not expecting this, but decided to play along with him.  "I guess that's fine…I mean, I really like you and all, but I can't stand in the way of true love… How about once we get out of here, I'll stop by the hospital wing and let Hiead know?" Kizna said, trying to suppress her giggles.  "I think you and Hiead would make a great couple!"   
  
"What??? You're kidding right?" Zero asked incredulously.  Kizna shook her head.  "You better take that back Kizna!" Zero growled. He was sitting on his knees facing her.  
  
"Or what?" Kizna countered, raising an eyebrow at him. Zero didn't say anything in response. He took her by surprise, grabbing her sides, and started tickling her.  
  
He had her on her back and was tickling her sides until she couldn't stop laughing. After about five minutes, he decided that was enough torture for her, and let her go. Kizna's face was red with laughing so hard and she panted beneath him, grateful for the respite. She looked up at him with eyes sparkling brightly with happiness. "Beautiful," he whispered.  
  
Kizna felt herself blush at that complement as she looked on at Zero. Some how, Zero had ended up lying on top of Kizna, both their bodies tangled up in his bed sheets. He felt his breathing become faster and deeper, because of the close proximity. He could feel her soft breath on his face, as he stared into her wide eyes. His throat contracted as he tried to swallow. Zero pulled Kizna closer to him, as he put his face in her hair taking in the heavenly smell.  
  
"I love you," he whispered, as he caught a hold of her lips with his in a fiery kiss that sent both their minds spinning, their bodies wanting more. Kizna moaned as she felt him applying more pressure on her lips. She felt his tongue graze her lips as she slightly parted her lips, and felt his tongue roll over hers. She shivered slightly and moaned out his name. Kizna brought her hands out, wrapping them around his neck, her fingers playing with his chocolate brown hair.  
  
Zero felt like his heart would burst out from his chest; his heart was beating so loudly.  He felt her shiver slightly, moan out his name, and wrap her arms around his neck. His hands roamed down her body, down to the hem of her shirt. He lifted it slightly, and felt her warm skin touch his cool fingers.  
  
He knew he had to stop before he got carried away and did something that he would regret later on, but it was like his body was on autopilot and it wasn't answering to what his mind was telling him. He broke off the contact with her lips and took in a deep breath before his body took over again.  
  
He placed his cool lips on her neck; placing butterfly kisses down her slender neck. Kizna closed her eyes and just savored the feeling. She pulled him closer as she felt him suck on her neck slightly before moving on. Her hands moved down from his neck to the front of his shirt, as she unbuttoned the first few buttons on his shirt wanting to feel his cool skin under her fingertips.  
  
She felt his hand slip up her shirt, caressing her back as she pulled his face back to her lips. Before she could kiss him again, he forced himself to stop, knowing that if he kissed her again, he would get carried away, and he didn't think he had enough resolve to pull away again.  
  
"Kizna... We'd better stop before we do something we'll both regret.  I don't think I'll be able to stop again-" he started. Kizna just shut him up by kissing him on his lips again. As fast as it had started, it had ended, leaving Zero wanting more. Zero opened his eyes and stared at her wondering why she pulled back.  
  
"I know, we should stop," she whispered, giving him a small smile. He smiled back, and rolled off her and lay beside her, trying to catch his breath. Zero pulled her body close to his, enjoying the close proximity of their bodies as he basked in the heat that her body radiated.  
  
Kizna rolled onto her side to face him. She scooted closer to him, pressing her body up against his. She lifted her head up slightly, and placed her lips next to his ear. "I love you," she whispered, as she placed a kiss on his ear, and snuggled up to him.  
  
Kizna's sharp ears picked up the sounds of feet right out side the door. So she got up and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. A few seconds after she closed the door, Zero heard a beep, and knew that their friends were back to let them out. He sat up, and saw the door open, while he straightened out his clothes.  
  
"Hey guys!" Zero said.  
  
"Hi, I saw that the door was locked, so I came to open it..." Clay said, acting as if he wasn't the one who closed the door, locking them inside.  
  
"Uh huh, sure Clay," Kizna said grinning, walking out from the bathroom, looking as good as new. "We all know it was you guys who locked us in here in the first place, so don't try to hide it!"  
  
"What are you talking about Kizna? And what are you doing here anyways?" Roose said, while Yamagi tried to hold his breath, trying to prevent himself from laughing.  
  
"Argh… never mind, if you don't admit it, fine. But I know it was you guys," Kizna said, glaring at all of them.  
  
"But I am interested in finding out what transpired in this room, while you two were locked up in here…"Saki said, holding back her laughter at the looks on Zero's and Kizna's faces.  
  
"Nothing happened Saki… you know, there isn't much to do in here first of all, so we just talked for a while.." Zero said.  
  
"Oh, sure! You're here locked up with a girl for heaven's sake! Surely you weren't talking for the whole one hour. Even I would get bored of that!" said an exasperated Yamagi. Zero and Kizna both blushed at that thought.  
  
"You pervert!!" Kizna said, slapping Yamagi over the head.  
  
"Hey! That was just rude, and uncalled for!!" Yamagi said.  
  
"Well it's your own fault for bringing up such perverted thoughts!" Kizna countered.  
  
"Whatever, just break it up you two," Zero said, getting up and standing in between them. "It is just about dinner time, so why don't we head down to the mess hall right now?" said Zero, as he walked outside into the hallway.  
  
They stopped by the medical room, to pick up Wreka, Ikhny, and Tukasa, and then continued on their way to the mess hall.

(_Rewritten: 5/2/04)_  
  



	10. 10 Feelings Revealed II

Partner or Lover Chapter 10: **Feelings Revealed II**

**(**_Rewritten: 05/08/04)_

_"As people get older, they start to loose their innocence," Hiead whispered, staring deeply into Ikhny's eyes._

_"It just depends on how soon they loose it," he growled as he leaned down and captured her lips in a fiery kiss._

Ikhny woke up from the very vivid dream, gasping for breath. With the back of her hand, she wiped sheen of sweat that had formed on her forehead.  She was still a bit startled at the kind of dream she had… frankly, it disturbed her for the most part, and she started feeling uncomfortable with her pajamas sticking to her burning flesh. She went to the bathroom- but before she did, she went over to her dresser and got a new pair of clothes- and quickly stripped the garments off of her body and changed into a new pair of nightclothes. Then she washed her face with cold water and made her way back to bed, trying to get the dream out of her head, but ended up falling into a restless sleep.

In the morning, all of the repairers and the candidates saw that Hiead was back to normal, much to Ikhny's dismay, sneering at everyone that even glimpsed at him. Whenever she caught Hiead staring at her, Ikhny went red, turning her face to the other side. When the others ask her what's wrong, she would just shrug it off as nervousness, and say that it was nothing.

She caught Hiead looking at her _again_, this time during lunch.  Now it started making her uncomfortable as she squirmed under the sliver- haired boy's gaze.  

Ikhny turned her face to the side, trying to obstruct his view by asking Zero to move to the side slightly. Zero thought nothing of it, and moved a bit, cutting off Hiead's view of Ikhny. Kizna, who was sitting beside Ikhny, saw her unusual behavior, since morning actually, and turned to face her.

"Ikhny, what's that matter?" Kizna asked and then added hastily, "and tell me the truth this time because I know it's not nothing and I know it's not your nerves."  Kizna looked into Ikhny's eyes, trying to see if the girl's eyes betrayed any sort of information. 

"I'm telling you Kizna, it was nothing."

"Then tell me why whenever Hiead looks at you, you turn your head away from his gaze and blush?" Kizna asked bluntly.

"Ahh…well…" Ikhny could not come up with any excuse other than denying the truth to evade her friends. Kizna got the answer she wanted from the now speechless girl. 

Kizna gave a knowing smile and told Ikhny that she will help her. Ikhny smiled back nervously and finished her lunch.

Later that day, they had class to attend.

"Now, all of you need to learn the right way of battling," Azuma started, and was surprised to see that Zero didn't interrupt him.

"Today I'm going to teach you about the different parts that the goddesses are composed of. We will have this class every other day and by the time you all become goddess pilots you will know _every single detail_ of _every goddess_ by heart," Azuma said, pacing in front of the small sized classroom that could only fit about fifteen students.

Roose raised his hand, his face etched in wonderment. "Sir, why do we need to know about the goddesses? I mean it's not like _we're_ going to repair them later on."

Azuma shot a glare his way, and answered his question. "If the need arises, you will have to know the different parts of your goddess as well as the other goddesses. What if something happened to your repairer, or any other repairer? Or in the middle of fighting victim, your goddess malfunctions, and your repairer cannot figure out the problem? That is why repairers AND candidates need to know every single insignificant detail about the goddesses. And this is only a small bit of your training to become a pilot," Azuma said, glaring at the ten kids in the room.

"And candidates, you should _never_ rely on your repairer too much, because if something goes wrong and the repairer becomes ill, or is in grave danger," Azuma glanced over to Zero and Kizna, "you will need to be able to handle the pressure on your own!"  He took a deep breath and looked around the room.

"Now, let's get started…" Azuma said, walking around the desk that was set at the front of the classroom, and made his way to the computer screen that was placed at the front of the room. He went over to a keyboard, which was beside the wall-sized screen, and brought up a picture of the first goddess, and her pilot. (a/n: just think of a regular classroom, with a black board in front of the class. Instead of a black board, there's a big flat- screen monitor in its place, and there's a keyboard near the screen for control).

"This is the top goddess and her pilot," Azuma said, going on to explain about the goddess and her pilot in detail. "The goddess's name is Ernn Laties, and her pilot is Teela Zain Elmes. Teela is fifteen right now, the same age as you all, give or take a year. She is the first and probably the only girl for a long, long time, to pilot a goddess because she has the EX ability, and is able to control it very well."

Azuma goes on teaching for the rest of the day, till dinner at least, only getting through with Teela and her goddess.

At the end of class, Azuma stopped them before they went out the door for dinner. "I will see you all for pro- ing training in the morning again.  The day after that, once you are done with lunch, I will see you all back here and shall continue my lesson." As soon as he was done talking, the five candidates and their repairers rushed out the door, and headed to the mess hall to get dinner.

During dinner, Hiead sat with the rest of the gang grudgingly, only because there was no space left anywhere else. He ate quickly, wanting to get out of there as fast as he could. _'I can't believe I'm sitting here with all of these good – for – nothing people! I'm just humiliating myself by sitting here longer than I have to!'_ he thought, a scowl plastered on his face.

"Hey Hiead?" Zero asked, looking up from his dinner, and looking across the table.

"Hiead?"

"HEY HIEAD!!!" Zero screamed, getting a little aggravated.

"What?!?" Hiead said, glaring daggers at the brown haired boy.

"Nothing, I was just wondering if you were feeling better. You were spacing out for a bit there," Zero said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm fine!" Hiead spat out. He quickly ate the rest of his dinner, got up from the table, and walked out of the mess hall. Zero saw his strange behavior, or well for him at least, it was strange. For the others, it was just normal, and Zero decided to have a little chat with Hiead.

Zero quickly got up, and followed Hiead out of the mess hall.

Seven pairs of eyes followed Zero out of the mess hall, then six of them turned to look at the other.

"What?" Kizna asked, staring back at all of them.

"Where did Zero go? He didn't even finish his dinner. And for someone who likes food so much, that's just not like him," Yamagi stated.

"Oh well you know, the usual "after – dinner – fight" with Hiead…" Kizna said sarcastically, but the rest of them just gave Kizna a confused look. She just glared at them and went back to her dinner. "I have no clue where he went ok?" she mumbled, as she continued to eat.

She had a fair idea why Zero had gotten up after Hiead._ 'Maybe he just wants to talk to Hiead……. he has been acting funny ever since he set his eyes on Ikhny. I wonder…maybe he just doesn't know how to go about expressing those feelings…'_ Kizna thought.

After dinner, everybody headed back to their respective rooms to get some sleep, since it had been a long day and they needed to get up early the next day for training.

Later the next day, after training and lunch, the others tried to leave Zero and Kizna alone for a moment, but Kizna would hear none of it. She got up and dragged Ikhny away, claiming that she had to speak to her alone for a moment.

"Ikhny, what's going on with you and Hiead?" Kizna asked, staring intently on the brown haired girl.

"No-nothing actually," she said, sounding a bit depressed.

"Ikhny, you've got to stand up to him, and act a little more confident. If you don't then he'll just think your another one of those meek repairers, who just sit around repairing, and are useless at everything else," Kizna said. "If you don't get a little back bone, and stand up to him, then Hiead won't stop bossing you around. If you want to grab his attention, then get his attention by talking to him, and showing him that you're not afraid of him."

"I think you're right Kizna…" Ikhny said, looking a little apprehensive. "I'll try that. I'll try to act a bit braver around him next time. But what if he tries to hurt me again?" Ikhny asked, fear creeping into her eyes.

"Don't worry about that… I have a feeling that he won't try to hurt you anymore," Kizna said, winking at Ikhny.

The two girls got up and headed back to where everyone else was after they finished their 'girl talk.'

Between helping out Hiead and Ikhny, and running from training, to class, to practice, Kizna and Zero could find no time for each other. The rest of the gang were on their tails 24- 7, but could never find an opportunity for them. It was either that Zero and Kizna had class, or they had to work on Zero's anti- gravity sickness, or they were too busy with something else, or that they had to talk with Hiead or Ikhny, and they just wouldn't be left alone with the other. The rest of the candidates and repairers were getting a bit frustrated, and agitated from all their failed attempts.

"You know, Zero is spending a lot more time with Hiead ever since he got out of the Medical wing. Do you think something is going on between them that we don't know about?" Clay asked.

"Oh my gosh! Do you think that your plan backfired, and instead of hooking up Zero and Kizna, Zero got together with Hiead?!?" Yamagi asked, looking shocked. The rest of them just sweat dropped.

"You know Yamagi, you have a very disgusting mind……..what in the world do you think of every day?" Saki asked, slightly peeved. "You know what? Don't answer that, I don't want to know!"

Yamagi just chuckled. "It was just a joke! You people are impossible!" Yamagi grumbled.

A few days later

The rest of the candidates and repairers besides Hiead, Zero, and Kizna decided that they would take the day off, since they already had their training in the morning and no class in the afternoon.

Hiead headed off towards the medical wing since Dr. Rill insisted that he come back a few days later, to check up on his injuries. (Hiead didn't do much training with the pro- ings the past few days). Hiead tried to get out of it, but in the end, Dr. Rill said that she wouldn't let him get back into a pro- ing for a month if he didn't show up later, and Hiead finally gave in.

So now there was only Zero and Kizna left after lunch.

"Hey, you want to go and work on your anti- gravity sickness problem today?" Kizna asked, looking over the table at Zero.

"But I just ate lunch!" Zero exclaimed, trying to weasel his way out.

"So what? It's not like you're going to regurgitate your food…err……well in your case, that might happen…… Fine, we'll go after an hour," Kizna said, with a 'and – that's – final' tone. Zero just sulked for a few minutes.

"So, what do you want to do for one hour?" Kizna asked, with a bored look on her face.

"Well, since the other's aren't on our backs this time, how about we go to the recreation room, and maybe plan out how we can help Hiead and Ikhny. I know that it's driving Hiead bonkers with all those feelings going through his head," Zero said as he got up from the table, and waited for Kizna to follow.

Zero and Kizna headed out of the mess hall, towards the recreation room. They talked for a bit, and planned out a way to get Hiead to express his feelings to Ikhny without him loosing his pride and confidence. "I think that Hiead should first talk to Ikhny and get to know her a bit, before he does anything else," Zero started.

They finally decided that for them to help either one of their friends, they would need both Hiead and Ikhny to first talk to each other. Once they were done talking, Kizna and Zero both got up and headed out of the recreation room, and suited up. They went outside G.O.A. to help Zero on his anti- gravity sickness.

Zero floated in space for a few minutes, a rope tied to his waist. He started squirming around trying to figure which way was the top and what was the bottom. "Zero, you've got to stop looking for the top and the bottom. Just let yourself go, and try not to think that there is a top or bottom. Just be free," Kizna said, a look of sympathy etched onto her face for her boyfriend.

She saw him squirming again, and she let out an exasperated sigh. "Zero, just close your eyes and take a deep breathe," she said, watching him follow her directions. "Ok, now just focus on my voice. Relax your whole body, letting every muscle and bone in your body go limp. Just relax your mind and breath in and out." She watched Zero, as he floated easily in space, his squirming finally ceasing. "Now open your eyes, and just keep focusing on my voice. Even though there's no top or bottom in space, you have control over your own body Zero. You cannot fall, or float away. There's nothing to fear in space," Kizna said, trying to reassure Zero. But she mumbled under her breath, "except for victim, and flying asteroids…"

"I think I got it!" Kizna heard Zero exclaim. His voice didn't sound shaky meaning that he had full control of his body now. She turned to face him and saw him floating towards her. Zero saw Kizna sitting on top of G.O.A. and landed beside her. He sat down next to her and exclaimed, "I think what you said helped."

"How was it?" she asked turning to face him.

"Well, I did what you said, and just let myself go. I didn't try looking for a top or a bottom, just let my self go out there," he said, a smile brightening up his face. "It really helped. Thanks!" Zero wrapped a gloved arm around Kizna's waist and pulled her closer to his body. "Now what do you say we go back inside? There's only so much "space" a guy can take!" Zero said, his whole body shaking with pent up laughter. Kizna soon followed, laughing till her sides hurt.

After their short break, both teens headed back inside, and took off the suits they were previously wearing.

Before entering the halls of G.O.A. again, Zero wrapped his arms around Kizna, pulling her back into his chest, so that her back was pressed up against his chest. He bent his face to her neck, placing soft feather- like kisses down her slender neck. "What was that for?" Kizna murmured, getting lost in the sensations she was feeling. Zero abruptly pulled back, leaving her yearning for more, and turned her around. "What? I can't kiss my girlfriend now?" Kizna giggled, and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Alright Romeo, let's get back to our friends before they suspect something," she replied, walking back into the halls, with Zero following behind her.

Walking down a hall, they spotted a flash of silver hair headed their way. "Hey Hiead?" Zero asked, making the silver head come to a halt.

"Yes?" he said, an air of coolness radiating off him.

"How 'bout a one- on – one battle, with the pro- ings?" Zero asked, looking over at Kizna. Kizna nodded her head in agreement.

"Sure, I'm up for it…wait…what's the catch? I know you want something, cause it can't be that easy to get you into a pro- ing battle…especially her," Hiead said, nodding his head over in Kizna's direction.

Zero was just about to say that it was just for more practice, but Kizna interrupted him. "I got the greatest idea Zero!" she whispered into his ear. "Ok. How about this. If Zero wins the battle, then you have to go and talk to Ikhny sometime this week. It looks like you've been avoiding her lately, but have been staring at her quite often," Kizna said, raising one eyebrow and the now blushing Hiead.

Hiead glared back at her but asked, "What's in it if I win?"

"Then we'll stop bugging you to go and talk to her, but you will have to do it sometime," Kizna said, grinning.

"Fine, it sounds fair enough," Hiead said, shooting one last glare at the two, and headed off towards the battle room. Zero and Kizna followed. Once inside, Kizna went to the panel board, while Zero and Hiead got suited up for their fight. Kizna set both their pro- ings to "all systems green", and waited for them to enter the battlefield.

"Ok, all systems are up and running," Kizna said, watching the boys head toward each other.

Hiead let out a scream as he launched himself towards the brown haired boy. Zero countered, blocking Hiead's kicks and punches with equal fury. A kick for a kick, and a punch for a punch, both of them were tiring, but never giving up.

After about five minutes of "warm up time," as Zero claimed it to be, they suddenly stop when the field changes, and blackness surrounds them. "Kizna! What happened?" Zero asked on the verge of panicking.

"I- I don't know Zero. I am positive that I did not set these settings in," Kizna replied looking down at her control panel. "But Zero, ignore everything around you, and just concentrate on your opponent."

Zero closed his eyes, Hiead looking curiously at what he was doing. Zero took in a few deep breaths, and calmed his nerves. He opened his eyes to the surrounding blackness, and took everything in.

"Remember what I told you back there," Kizna said, a worried expression creeping onto her face.

"Right!" Zero said, getting into battle position. Hiead smirked and attacked. "Ready for the second round Enna?"

"Bring it on!" Zero said, as he dodged one of Hiead's very fast punches. Hiead stumbled around a bit, trying to regain his stance. _'I wasn't planning on Enna dodging that one! He's getting better!'_ Hiead mused, as he got ready to attack again.

Zero let out a battle cry as he launched himself towards the floating body, using the jets located at the feet of the pro- ings. (a/n: are there jets on the pro ings to get them around?)

The jets on the pro- ing propelled him towards Hiead at an alarming rate. He landed a punch on Hiead, his fist creating a dent in Hiead's armor. He caught Hiead off guard, again and punched him near the vicinity of his face. Hiead stumbled back from impact, and just floated in space for a few minutes. He floated around till he was up right again, and used his jet propellers to push himself towards Zero. He threw punch after punch at Zero, all of them missing.

_'Man! Zero is better than I give him credit for. He's got the pro- ing functions down perfectly. When did he get so much time?'_ Hiead asked, his fury building at not landing a punch on his opponent.

"Lets finish this off Hiead!" Zero yelled, as his hair started turning a turquoise blue.

"Alright then!" Hiead yelled back, his hair also taking on a bluish color.

"Is blue hair the newest style or something?" Kizna mused, while watching the two adrenaline driven boys fight to their heart's content.

Zero threw another punch at Hiead and at the same time, started lifting his leg into the air. Hiead dodged the punch quickly, but got nailed in the side by Zero's kick. Hiead grinded his teeth in frustration, and threw a kick back at Zero. His foot collided with Zero's arm, as Hiead gave a haughty smile. "You can't take me down that easily Enna!"

"How much do you want to bet on that?" Zero asked, a smile playing on his face. Hiead just growled at attacked again. Zero maneuvered out of Hiead's line of attack quickly, and floated behind him. In a flash, Zero knocked Hiead down with an elbow to the middle of his back. (a/n: just think of Zero in a squatting position, and Hiead lying flat down, but in space).

Hiead groaned as he tried to get up, but Zero would hear no such thing. His hair went back to chocolate brown, but he kept pummeling the armor Hiead was in. "Zero, I think you can stop now…I think Hiead's had enough. If you punch him any harder, you might break the pro- ing completely," Kizna said.

"Alright," said Zero, backing off from the other dented pro-ing. The landscape immediately shifted again, and led them back to the mountainous terrain that they first fought on. Hiead pushed up, against the ground, but had no strength left to pick himself up. He rolled onto his back, and stared at the blue-eyed boy. Zero offered his hand, helping Hiead up off the ground. Grudgingly, Hiead took Zero's help and got back inside.

Once inside, Kizna jumped onto Zero, smothering his face with kisses. Zero just laughed it off. "Well, if I knew I would get this kind of treatment, then I would have beaten Hiead more often!" he said, stealing a glance back at Hiead. He was sitting on the floor with his back resting against the wall, his eyes closed. Hiead just let out a 'hunh' and left them to the silence.

Zero turned back to Kizna, and took her mouth with his in a passionate kiss. He wrapped his arms around his partner's waist, pulling her closer to him. Kizna moaned slightly as Zero applied a little more pressure, coaxing her mouth open with his tongue.

"Get a room you two!" Hiead said in disgust, his eyes still closed. _'I don't even want to try to look, scared out of my mind at what I might see…_'

Zero ignored Hiead's ranting and continued roaming Kizna's mouth with his tongue. He pressed her back into one of the control panels, where she was seated at earlier; letting his hands roam over her back. Kizna brought one of her hands that was around his waist, and let it run through his soft hair, massaging his scalp. She pressed his head forward slightly, kissing him with a little more intensity.

All of a sudden, the door to the battle room opened, and a group of people chatting nosily marched in. Kizna and Zero jumped apart, at the first sign that someone else was in the room besides Hiead. The group came to a halt and an eerie silence surrounded them. Kizna and Zero were panting heavily, as if they just ran two miles and came to an abrupt halt. Both of them were blushing, their faces bright red at being caught in an intimate moment.

They stared at the group that walked in, Hiead looking on for his own amusement.

"Uhh…uh…hi?" Zero asked, rubbing the back of his head. The new comers we still silent, just staring at the pair in front of them, their mouths agape.

"What a-are you guys do-doing here?" Kizna asked, still trying to get the shock out of her system.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag," Zero said, turning to Kizna. She nodded in response. Kizna grabbed Zero's hand with hers and turned to face the group.

"Well, Zero and I are together now, you guys…" Kizna said, slightly nervous about their reaction.

"You're kidding!" screamed a red haired girl.

"Nope," Zero said, shaking his head. "We're not lying Saki."

The rest of the candidates and repairers mouths excluding Zero, Kizna and Hiead's, fell open in shock.

"When did this happen?" Clay asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"When you guys tried to set us up the first time. We figured out that something was up, and we decided to not say anything because we had a feeling someone, or some **people** in this case, were watching us. So we came back later that night, and talked it over," Kizna said, a smile playing on her lips as she remembered that fond memory. "But luckily, Hiead didn't give us away. We decided to get you guys back, for trying to set us up like that, and decided not to tell any of you bout us."

All seven faces in the audience turned to face Hiead, all with narrowed eyes, and stern faces.

"What?" Hiead drawled, looking at the group with fierce red eyes.

"You didn't tell us that they were together!!" screamed Saki; angry enough to even yell at Hiead.

"Like I care enough bout their love life to tell you measly wimps!" Hiead retorted, getting up to his wobbly feet, now off the ground.

Zero and Kizna looked at the fighting pair, and decided that it was a good time to leave the angry group. Both of them crept silently towards the door of the battle room, and saw the door open with a silent "swoosh". They were about to step into the hallway when Yamagi turned around and spotted them.

"Hey! Where are you two going?" Yamagi yelled so that everyone in the room could hear. He just wanted to see Zero and Kizna sweating under pressure. He gave them an evil grin, and turned to look at the group's reaction.

Both Zero and Kizna turned around, their mouths agape. They didn't know what to say since they were caught. They just stared blankly at the rest of the group. "Uhh…out?" Zero said, raising his eyebrows.

"Ok, ok…. we're coming back in…" Kizna stated, dragging Zero back into the room. "Just make sure no one mentions this to any of the adults, especially Azuma. Agreed?" Kizna said, looking around the room for confirmation. The rest of them nodded, including Hiead.

"Alright then. Let's get Hiead to Dr. Rill," she said, grabbing on to one of Hiead's arms, to help him off his wobbling feet. Zero grabbed Hiead's other arm, and hoisted it over his shoulder. They walked out of the battle room for good, ignoring their friends surprised, no, shocked faces. The three of them walked to the medical wing, and waited for Dr. Rill to come and check Hiead out.

"I guess I went a bit over board…" Zero started, rubbing the back of his head, smiling sheepishly.

"It was good practice…. next time I'll beat you though!" Hiead snarled, angry at loosing to Zero. He just smiled back.

"I'll go and get Ikhny," Kizna said. "It might do you two some good talking to each other…" she said as she walked out the door.

"Now you don't go trying to get us two together, cause it isn't going to work like it did you two…" Hiead yelled after Kizna.

"Sure it will! Just watch and learn Hiead!" Kizna yelled back, now out of sight.

Kizna ran down the halls looking for the rest of her friends, even though she had no intentions to see them right after their confrontation in the battle room. She spotted them down the long corridor, making their way towards the medical wing.

"Hey Ikhny!" Kizna screamed, picking up her pace a bit.

"Oh! Hi Kizna. We were just headed towards where Hiead is…" Ikhny said, casting a downward look.

"Come on, I promised Hiead I'd bring you back to see him," Kizna whispered to Ikhny, standing a bit closer to her than anyone else, so she wouldn't be over heard.

"Come on you guys," Kizna said, leading the way, with the rest of the group and a very surprised Ikhny following the pink haired repairer.

After an hour or two of mindless chitchat about random things, while watching over Hiead in Dr. Rill's medical ward, slowly, the candidates and the repairers left to do their own things. Soon after, all that was left were Hiead, Ikhny, Zero and Kizna, who seem to spend a lot of time together recently.

"How bout this…You two can start from the beginning…How does that sound to you Hiead?" Zero said standing up. Ikhny just gave him a weird look, confused as to where this conversation was heading. Hiead just grumbled an unheard response. Zero took that as a yes and dragged Kizna out the door, now leaving just Hiead and Ikhny together in the room alone.

"We'll be out here if you need us!" Zero yelled back. Hiead just growled and turned to face Ikhny who took Zero's seat on the chair that was placed beside Hiead's head. He sat up with difficulty and Ikhny's help he made it to a comfortable position.

"What was Zero talking about?" Ikhny asked meekly.

"He was talking about starting over…and I hate to admit it, but I agree with him, if I want to get any where…" Hiead trailed off. He lifted his hand off the bed and thrust it towards Ikhny. She looked at it curiously but took his hand in hers anyways. He shook it briefly and pulled away immediately.

"I'm Hiead Gner…and you are?" He asked lifting an eyebrow. Ikhny gave a soft smile and gave a similar greeting back to him.

A few days later, Hiead was back to normal, glaring at everyone and anyone that he could find worthy of his glare. Though, when it came to Ikhny, he gave some leeway towards her.

It was another bright and early morning and all the repairers and candidates were in their 'sleep- deprived' mode when they came to class.

Azuma sat them down and continued on about the other Goddess Pilots and their goddesses. "Now, the next goddess pilot is…" The silver haired boy soon tuned him out; his thoughts started drifting towards a certain brown haired repairer.

_'This is insane!! Why do I even bother with these pesky feelings of mine when all they do is come in the way?'_ he thought, with a scowl on his face. His thoughts about his feelings and Ikhny kept him occupied, for the rest of the class time with Azuma, as he tried to decipher what exactly he felt towards the girl.

He got his feelings sorted out by the time class was over and with a determined face, decided to do something about it. _'I might as well act on my feelings if they're just going to keep coming in the way of my becoming a goddess pilot.'_ He thought. Then as an afterthought he added with a smirk, '_plus I'll have someone of my own that I'm not competing with Enna for…'_

He made his way to the mess hall and ate his food slightly closer to the other candidates than normal. No one took notice of his actions and he just let it go. After lunch, the eight of them went back for their regular classes and had a pro- ing battle with Azuma monitoring them.

A few days later, with Hiead's growing feelings, and a budding friendship between Ikhny and Hiead, he felt ready to express his feelings for her, but he was not sure weather she would accept them or reject them.

_'I might as well give it a go…_' he thought, getting up the nerve to tell Ikhny. Ikhny on the other hand, had finally stopped fearing Hiead, and accepted that he had a difficult past to deal with, and that's what made him so secluded and isolated. She realized that she's the only one right now to help him come out of his shell and to live life the way he was meant to live life.

Both of them were the same around the other candidates, if he ever yelled at Ikhny, it would be sort of a playful bantering between friends, and she sometimes even chalked up some nerve to yell back at him. She understood that he was still treating her the same out in public to keep their cover, and she understood that he did not want to be "understood" by the others around him.

Hiead chickened-out and decided to give it another go at telling Ikhny how he felt tomorrow. All night he mulled over how to tell Ikhny his feelings.

After pro- ing battle practice the next day, Azuma collected the rest of the group for their "evaluation" speech.

"Everyone, come here for a second before you leave," Azuma was shooting a death glare towards the candidate who was trying to sneak away. Hiead snickered under his breath and mumbled "Loser" under his breath.

Everyone went up to where Azuma was standing and crowded around him, just like little kids would around a balloon-seller. "I see that the cooperation between candidate and repairer has gotten much better over this past month or so. But I would still like the candidates to help repair their pro-ings." With that said, Azuma turned around and walked out the door.

"I take it that that's the way Azuma says 'Great job'," Roose said scratching his head. Hiead was leaning against the wall during Azuma's speech and saw him walk out the door. A minute later, Ikhny went out the door. Hiead decided to follow her and finally get his feelings off his chest. He follows her out the door discretely. Once out in the hallway, he cornered her against the wall.

Ikhny was startled when Hiead backed her up against a wall, but she knew he had no bad intensions in mind. She looked him in the eye over the top of her rimmed glasses. He stared right back. "What is it Hiead?" she whispered. She knew he had something to say that was troubling him, otherwise he would not have taken so long to spill it.

"I-I—love---" He couldn't do it. Ikhny had a clue as to what he was going to say and decided to give it a shot. She was the only other person he was open towards besides Zero and Kizna.

"You love me?" Ikhny whispered. Hiead just nodded. Tears sprang up to her eyes. She was startled that she could turn a once cold-hearted person into a gentle one that loved her.

"Why?" she asked. She couldn't believe Hiead loved her. He couldn't possibly love her because she knew she didn't have the looks, nor the courage to stand up to him, nor what she thought were his standards for a girl.

"Why do I need a reason to love someone?" Hiead countered. Ikhny just looked towards the ground. She whispered the three words back to him –I love you- that made his heart swell with happiness, though his face showed no signs of it. But his eyes did brighten a tad bit and Ikhny could tell his emotions that way.

Hiead's eyes caught sight of Ikhny's rosy lips and got an evil look into his eyes and he started to speak.

"As people get older, they start to loose their innocence," said Hiead, staring deeply into Ikhny's eyes. She gave him a questioning look.

He continued on without stopping. "It just depends on how soon they loose it." Now she was really confused as to what Hiead was talking about.

Without any warning, Hiead swooped down and kissed her soundly on the lips. Ikhny's eyes widened in shock as the realization of what Hiead was talking about hit her, but she soon got used to the feeling. Just as she started to kiss back, Hiead ended kiss as quickly as he started it, and without a second glance at her, he turned around and walked away from the scene.

A second later, the door that they were standing beside opened and Zero and Kizna walked out, followed by the rest of the repairers. Zero took notice of Ikhny standing beside the door and asked her what was the matter. She had a far away look in her eyes, a smile on her face and she was staring at the retreating back of Hiead who was farther down the hall. Kizna stood by Zero's side taking in the whole picture… flushed face, swollen lips, glazed look in the girl's eyes… then Kizna gave a smile. Zero turned around and asked Kizna if she knew what was wrong with Ikhny. Kizna pointed towards where Hiead was and said "He told her." Zero gave a confused look back at her for a minute, then he realized what she was talking about. He grinned. "All right Hiead!" he whispered under his breath.

With one arm around Ikhny and the other around Kizna, the three of them headed off to the mess hall to join their friends for lunch once again.


	11. 11 Plans for a New Leader

PART 2   
Partner or Lover Chapter 11: Plans for a New Leader

Ernn Laties softly touched back down into the goddess hanger in G.O.A. and let Teela out. The blue haired girl wordlessly walked back over to the control panel and set the correct modifications on her Ingrid so that it could recharge.

Pushing her shimmering blue hair away from her eyes, she swiftly walked down the halls of G.O.A., her destination already set in her mind.

Teela turned the corner sharply and just barely managed to avoid a head on collision with a small youngster. Obviously, it was the boy's first year on G.O.A. since he had a completely bewildered look on his face. Teela growled in annoyance as she saw more children rush out from their various places and prevented her access to the rest of the hallway. She waited patiently for the others to clear the hallway and she continued on her way.

Once she got to her pre-planned destination, she knocked twice on the metal door in front of her and it opened with a silent 'whoosh'. She quietly walked in, not wanting to grab any unwanted attention.

"Is your evaluation complete?" Teela asked promptly. She saw the man in front of her nod. "Who, if I may enquire, is it?" she pressed.

"You have all the right to enquire," the man in front of her answered back. He paused for effect and before he could go further, Teela interrupted him again.

"You're beating the bush. Just tell me who it is."

She heard the man sigh. "It's very close. I still need to examine them for a few more weeks. Give me about a month's time. That should be long enough."

Teela pressed her lips into a thin line, anger evident on her flawless face. "You _know_ time is running out. Why ask for an extra month?" She did not wait for a response to her question. "Forget it. I'll come back for your answer in a month's time." Deciding to change the subject, she asked, "How is_ he?_"

"_He_ is fine. A burden if you ask me. Has no self-control at all. He's trying to keep something from me. I can see it in his eyes every time he looks at me." The man let out a short laugh that sounded more like a grunt and continued. "He can hide nothing from me. Doesn't he know that by now? I am favoring him more than anyone else, right now," he added, looking up at Teela for her reaction, but her face was stoic.

"Really now? That is interesting. I thought you hated _him_," Teela responded.

"Hated? It is such a strong word. I would prefer you not using it when describing him or I. A disagreement between the two of us is more of how I would have described it," the man countered, a small smile on his face.

"So," he started, trying to change the subject. "What, if I may ask, are you doing tomorrow night?" the man asked, a sly smile on his face.

Teela growled and rolled her eyes. "Grow up, old man. I, unlike you, have a life and it does not include you," she snapped. The man chuckled.

"Calm down. I was joking. Of course, you wouldn't know what joking meant even if it came up and bit you in the ass. Which, by the way, is very nice."

Teela glared at him, gave an exasperated sigh and said, "Can we get back on topic?"

"Oh, I thought we were done," the man replied, surprise evident in his voice. "I needed an extra month, and you gave me the time. Don't worry, I'll try to make up my mind before then, but if you want everything to go as planned, then please give me another month," he pleaded.

Teela nodded. "Fine then. If we are done with business here, then I shall be on my way." With that said, the blue- haired pilot swiftly turned around and walked out the room without glancing back, her blue hair swaying behind her. She headed over to the chambers assigned to her for her stay on G.O.A.

When she entered the deep blue colored room, she saw Erts sitting on her bed, a small smile playing on his face.

"What are you smiling about Erts?" she asked nonchalantly. She walked to the bathroom while picking a uniform out from her closet. Closing the bathroom door, she heard his reply.

"I saw him today," Erts said, looking very pleased with himself, but of course Teela could not see his expression so she just had to make do with the sound of his voice.

"Who? Enna?" Teela asked, her voice muffled by the rustling of clothing.

"Yes. I asked him how he was, and apparently he's gotten himself a girlfriend," Erts said, chuckling.

"WHAT?" Teela screeched out as she yanked the door open to see if Erts was telling the truth. Erts heard her scream and turned to look at the bathroom. Lucky for him, he got a whole eye full since Teela was only half dressed. The top half of her uniform was unbuttoned, and the bottom half was hanging limply in her hands. He could clearly see the midnight blue undergarments that she wore. He immediately gulped, tore his eyes away from her body, and coughed slightly- to give Teela an indication that she was underdressed- all the while his face turning redder by the second.

Realizing the kind of state she was in, Teela had the decency to blush and close the door. Behind the door, Erts could hear more clothes moving and heard her muffled question, "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure. I could most definitely feel it radiating off of him in waves. It was overwhelming, to tell you the truth," Erts whispered towards the end.

"Interesting to say the least," Teela said, walking out of the bathroom, her pilot uniform in her hand. The uniform she was currently wearing was similar to her pilot suit but this was not as tight as the other one, and gave her a little more room to move in. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"What makes you think it is a girl?" Erts said, smiling.

Teela shot him a 'do-you-think-I'm-dumb' look and said, "You said it yourself that he has a girlfriend."

"Oh yea," he said, grinning sheepishly. "It's Kizna," he added.

"Kizna Towryk? His repairer?" she asked incredulously. "Are you positive? Does he even know what will happen to him if _they _find out about this? Does he know what Azuma will do about this?" She kept firing questions at Erts while she paced back and forth in front of him.

"Teela, calm down. This is not like you. What happened to the quiet and cold bitch that I knew?" Teela shot him a dirty look and he tried to rephrase what he just said. "Ok, ok, so you're not a bitch. I just wanted to see your reaction," Erts said, chuckling a bit. "But what happened to the calm and collected exterior that you always have?" he asked, as he stood up from where he was, and walked in front of Teela, preventing her from going any further.

Teela looked up from the ground and said, "Enna better find a way out of this because if _they_ find out about him and Towryk, he's going to get kicked off, and whether we like it or not, he _is _probably the best candidate to take my place as the pilot of the white goddess. But we'll see. We still have a month's time to find the perfect candidate," she said, a hint of sarcasm evident in her voice.

She turned around and walked over to the door. It 'swooshed' open and before she walked out, without turning around she said, "Erts, you'd better talk to Enna about _this_," while waving her hands in the air to emphasize her point. Without any further conversation, she left for the mess hall, intent on going in, getting her food, and coming back out before anyone else caught sight of her.

While making her way to the mess hall, she found Rioroute walking along side her trying to make some small talk. She sighed in frustration and tried to walk faster, trying to place some distance between herself and the overly cheerful pilot. When he wouldn't leave her alone, she let out a groan of annoyance and let him chatter away until they arrived at the mess hall.

"Listen Rioroute, I have got to run. I'll talk to you some other time," Teela said quickly. She saw a hurt look on his face, but it quickly disappeared when he caught sight of Gareas over at another table. As the other pilot headed over to his friend, Teela made her way to the kitchens to grab some food and then head back to her goddess to make some operational changes. Once she had some food in her possession, she walked out of the mess hall. But before she left, she caught a glimpse of candidate 88 walking in with Erts by his side. A small smile lit her face, and then she disappeared into the halls.

----

As Erts walked in, with Zero by his side, he saw a black haired repairer run over to him and pull him into a tight embrace. Erts' eyes widened when he realized who it was. "Rome! It's great to see you! How are you?" he exclaimed as he hugged the girl back. She pulled away a bit and answered back. He smiled and then said, "Well, how about you sit with us today?" He looked over at Zero for some sign of acknowledgement and Zero nodded in agreement.

"Ok, I will do that!" Rome said, walking over to the quickly forming line to get her dinner. Zero and Erts decided to wait until the line got shorter before getting their food. Zero showed his friend the table and they sat down.

"So, how have you been Zero?" Erts asked. He knew it was useless to ask because he could just _feel_ how Zero was. But he felt that it was necessary to ask anyways.

"I'm fine. Azuma's still grilling us, now more than ever. I beat Hiead down to pulp recently," Zero blurted out, a wide grin on his face.

"Really?" Erts could feel a happiness radiating from his friend, and he was happy for him, but he did not exactly know the full reason for his happiness. "Enlighten me," Erts commanded with a smile.

"I shall gladly do so," Zero replied with a grin as he divulged to Erts every single detail as to how he beat Hiead. Everything from when he arrived in the control room, to beating Hiead because he could move faster than him. By the time he finished his story, the dinner line was exceptionally short, Zero's friends were heading over to the table where Erts and himself were settled at.

Erts looked over at Zero's friends and saw Kizna carrying two trays. He figured she must have brought Enna his dinner and felt he just had to make a comment on that. "Aww, how cute. Your girlfriend is bringing you dinner," he said as he looked over at Zero for his reaction.

Zero laughed.

A few seconds later, his laughter seized and he turned to Erts, eyes wide. "Ho- …" Zero just settled for playing it dumb. "Whom and what are you talking about?"

Erts just gave him a shrewd look. "Who do you think I'm talking about? Zero even you know that I know what I am talking about. Don't play dumb."

"Ok, ok. But how did you know?" Zero asked. Erts raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah…" was all Zero could say in response. By this time, the rest of the candidates and repairers, including Rome, seated themselves at the table and Zero's and Erts' dinners were placed in front of them.

No one thankfully brought up Zero and Kizna's relationship, and they all knew they had to be careful with Rome and everyone else still in the mess hall. _'I guess my friends are more responsible than I thought,'_ Zero thought, a smile on his face.

Today, Hiead was sitting at the table with the rest of the candidates, but off in a corner, secluded from everyone else. He kept one eye on Ikhny the whole time though.

Ikhny could feel Hiead's eyes on her and she turned her head to look at him, and shot him a questioning glance. He was sitting diagonally from her, a few seats beside Zero. He shook his head, his silver locks falling into his eyes. He took a slender hand, brushed his hair back, and gave her a small smile and a wink, making sure that no one else was looking their way. Ikhny felt the heat rise to her face and she quickly turned away, resuming the conversation she was in middle of with Kizna. Unbeknown to her, Hiead's face lit up with a tiny smile, a tiny, genuine smile, upon seeing her blush.

"So Erts, how is the job of piloting an Ingrid?" Zero asked after he swallowed a whole mouthful of what he called 'slop'.

"It's alright, not too eventful as you might think it is."

"Really?" Clay asked as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

Erts nodded. "Besides the extra capabilities installed into the Ingrid, they are mainly set up just like the pro- ings. And we only get to use them for battling victim. It's not like we can use them for practice or anything."

"Oh," Zero said. He did not know that the Ingrids had the basic set up of a pro-ing.

"The pro- ings are like miniature Ingrids Zero. The Ingrids are just severely modified. And with a spirit, or a soul if you want to call it, inside the Ingrid, called the goddess, that's one more thing that makes it vary from a pro- ing, but if you look at the roots of a goddess, its pretty much just like a pro- ing," Clay explained, looking over at Erts every now and then for conformation. Erts nodded his head once Clay was done explaining.

"Right you are Clay," he said at the end.

"Oh," Zero said once again, a disappointed look on his face. Erts felt Zero's disappointment and felt bad about it. It was after all, him, who told Zero about the goddess' true roots. At least if he did not mention it, Zero would still be thrilled about becoming a pilot. But now, with this knowledge, he wouldn't feel any different if he controlled a goddess or a pro-ing.

"How would you feel if I showed you my Ingrid?" Erts asked Zero.

Zero looked up and gave him a tentative glance. "You sure about that? I thought you weren't supposed to do that."

Erts shrugged. "I think I can make a few exceptions… so, what do you say? I can take you sometime in the evening after dinner. I'll be here all week, have some things to catch up on, but any day in the evening should be fine…" Erts concluded, running his schedule through his head once before confirming that his evenings are indeed free.

"Awesome!" Zero exclaimed, gaining the attention of the rest of the people at his table and a few others. He grinned sheepishly and turned back to Clay and Erts, continuing to voice his excitement to them.

----

Once over with dinner, the group of eleven, with Hiead trailing behind them at a safe distance, headed out from the mess hall and over to the recreation room to catch up with each other and talk about the past few months.

Roose pressed a button on the panel beside the recreation room door and it flashed green as the door opened. As he walked in, he saw a few other repairers he had never seen before over in a corner doing their own thing. So he led the group over to the other side of the rec. room, Hiead sitting far away so that he would not be noticed but at the same time, he could hear every word of what the others were saying.

Sitting down on the soft replica of soil, Erts started off the conversation by retelling his experiences of piloting a goddess.

"Truth be told, I was scared out there at one time. The first time I went out to fight the victim, I was scared out of my mind that something might happen to me, or to any one of the other pilots," Erts confessed a little while later.

Hiead, sitting in a secluded corner, smirked. _'Ha! Wimp… I bet with the kind of power that the goddesses contain, with all five of them working together it wouldn't take long at all to destroy those filthy creatures.'_ His red eyes narrowed as he watched each candidate, including Erts, closely, examining their every move...

----

Kizna got out of bed with a yawn as she rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. She glanced at the clock. _'Great… another day with the pro-ings,'_ she thought grudgingly while walking over to the showers. She peeled all her clothes off her body carefully, and stepped into the shower, allowing the warm, glistening water to run over her body. It is not that she did not care for the pro-ing training that the candidates had to go through, but it was starting to get quite monotonous after a while.

After soaping her body clean, Kizna stepped out of the showers and grabbed a towel off the rack; wrapping it around her wet body. She walked back into the room, got some fresh clothes from her bedside, walked back into the bathroom. A few minutes later, she came back with a fresh look. She folded her pajamas and put them with the rest of her clothes and walked out of the room. _'I need a place to think…'_ She started off in the direction of the recreation room but caught sight of two people leading that way. She scrunched up her face into an expression of wonder and tiptoed after the two strangers who took no notice of the pink haired repairer.

The two people turned the corner and walked into the recreation room. Kizna looked around to make sure no one was watching her and slipped through the doors before they closed. Slipping into a far corner where she could not be seen, she watched the two take a seat on a near by bench and talk in silent whispers. She could only catch bits and pieces of their conversation but she stored them in memory so that she could examine them at another time.

"… candidates need to be on their guard now more than ever."

"… Victim are getting smarter…" At this, Kizna's eyes widened. _'Does this mean that they can find a way into G.O.A. if they wanted to?'_ she thought as a shiver went down her spine.

"… wait another month… new pilot for white god…"

"… keep your eyes out for Rei," the female of the group said. After she finished talking, she stood up and walked out of the room, leaving the man alone to his thoughts. After ten minutes of waiting and watching, Kizna saw the man stretch, then get onto his feet and walk out of the recreation room. She came out of the darkened corner and almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a soft hand clamp down on her shoulder. She whipped around, her pink hair violently slashing the other person's face.

When Kizna finally turned around, she saw the boy who was behind her cover his face with both hands so she could not see who he was… but by the silver hair that he possessed, she knew it was Hiead. She heard him grumbled something under his breath.

"Oh Hiead! Don't do that! Are you ok?" she asked after reprimanding him for his actions.

He huffed out, "Yea, I'm _fine_," as he glared at her.

"What are you doing here anyways?" Kizna asked, raising an eyebrow at the candidate.

"I came here to get away from that bumbling idiot you call a boyfriend. I saw you spying on those two who walked in here earlier and decided to find out what you were up to."

Kizna flushed as she realized someone caught her spying on someone. "I- Uhhh… I was going to come here just to think about things, but I saw those two walking over here, so I decided to follow them…" Kizna stared at the ground, waiting for his reply.

"So what where they talking about?" Hiead asked, curiosity filling his red eyes. Kizna's eyes widened.

"You want to know what they were talking about?" Hiead nodded.

"Why do you look so surprised? I should be the one that is surprised because one doesn't see a _repairer like you_ sneaking around eavesdropping on other people's conversations…" Hiead explained.

Kizna gave him a short glare and then explained what she could hear. "I couldn't hear much from where I was standing, but they were talking about the Victim getting smarter and having to look for a new pilot and something about a boy named Rei?" She turned to Hiead and asked, "Do you know who Rei is?" Hiead shook his head. Apparently Zero did not tell them everything about his past… not yet at least.

----

The others were awake in due time, all of them meeting up once again in the pro- ing battle room just before Azuma came storming into the room with a furious look on his face. "Ok, all of you in your places. We have _no time_ to waste," Azuma said promptly, barking orders at everyone. Too scared to disobey, everyone else but Hiead and Zero scrambled to their places; the two boys took their own sweet time to get things done with calm looks plastered on their faces… Hiead had a cold look and Zero with a slightly confused expression.

Once in their battle suits and in their pro-ings, Kizna heard the battle room door open and turned around to see who it was. Her eyes landed on two tall teenagers, one whom she knew personally and the other whom she knew from pictures and rumors. Once they entered the room, two more boys followed them, these two she easily recognized. Their repairers were right beside them. One was Force Wartllium, also known as candidate 01, and the other was Aracd Narocke, also known as candidate 04, both boys a part of the best candidates in line to be the next Goddess pilots if they are lucky.

Azuma cleared his throat and grabbed a head set with a small microphone attached to it off a table near by and placed it on his head. He spoke loud and clear. "I would like you to meet Erts Virny Cocteau, Gareas-Elidd, Force Wartllium, and Aracd Narocke. But of course you know three out of the four gentlemen here today. Gareas and Erts are here to observe the battle and Force and Aracd will be your opponents for today. Now, you boys suit up, and let the games begin. May the best pilot win…" Azuma ended with a little ironic smirk on his face. The other two repairers went to their designated locations and went through the well-known routine of adjusting the settings on a pro-ing before a battle starts.

Gareas leaned into the boy standing beside him and whispered, "Whom are you rooting for?" Erts looked over and glanced at the green haired man. "You know," Gareas continued, without bothering to wait for Erts' answer. "That brown haired kid, Enna is it? Well, the only reason I met him was because he was in Eeva- Leena." Gareas shook his head. "It's a wonder how he even got in there in the first place."

Erts smiled. _'I just hope the white goddess is willing enough to allow Zero to pilot her. Or we just might have a new leader…we will see…'_ Erts turned his attention to the battle field and watched as the battle commenced.

Force stepped onto the field, surveying each of the other pilots from inside his pro-ing. His eyes caught that of Hiead's and locked his gaze on him. '_Well, it looks like I found my target,'_ he thought with a smirk.

"Looks like Force has found his opponent," Force's repairer muttered to herself. But Kizna's very sharp cat ears picked it up and her wondering gaze swiveled over to the other girl.

"What do you mean by that?" Kizna asked, curiosity seeping into her voice as she spoke.

"Well, usually, once Force sets his mind on something, he never lets it wander. He _always_ finishes what he starts," the girl ends with a smirk. "Watch," she says, pointing at the screen.

Force is seen trying to stare a hole into Hiead's head. Then all of a sudden, Force takes off at the unsuspecting boy, catching him by surprise. Hiead is sent flying in the air and ends up landing on top of Zero, both of them sprawled out on the ground in front of them.

Zero lets out a moan and says, "Next time you plan on landing on me Hiead, give me some sort of warning." Hiead just 'humph's and gets off the chocolate haired boy. He walks back over to his opponent and takes out his rifle and points it at Force's head.

Force lets out a cold, sharp laugh. "You think that's going to scare me away? Come on. I'm one of the best candidates to be picked to drive an Ingrid. You are nothing," Force finished as he pulled out his power blade and cut Hiead's rifle in half, cutting is clean down the center. The two halves slipped out of Hiead's hand and landed with a loud 'thump' on the ground. Hiead stared at his weapon with eyes wide open. He heard a faint scream from somewhere but could not make out what it was saying as the blood that was pounding in his ears made it very hard to focus on anything.

"HIEAD! Move, you idiot!" Zero screamed as he picked himself off the ground and ran at the form of Hiead. As Force's blade came down on Hiead's pro-ing, Zero threw himself at the silver haired boy, and pushed him off to the side, both of them just barely missing the swing of the blade that would have cut them cleanly in half.

"Zero, _try_ to be a little more careful next time," Kizna berated. Zero nodded absentmindedly since most of his mind was focused on dodging Force's attacks.

Force saw something coming from behind him and he abruptly stopped attacking Zero, turned around, and started attacking the person behind him.

Hiead tried to attack from behind, seeing if he could attack and take Force by surprise, but it seemed like Force was smarter than he looked. Hiead saw him turn around and fly right at him, his blade ready to attack. Hiead stopped in mid run, put up his defense field and waited. There was not much else he could do.

"Ikhny, transfer all power to the defense field," Hiead commanded. A second after Ikhny had completed her task; Force brought the blade down onto Hiead, sparks flying off in all directions. Hiead felt the pressure of the power blade even with his defense field at the maximum level. He pushed back onto the blade, hoping to knock Force off balance but it did not work in Hiead's favor.

Zero heard a slight 'yelp' coming from the other boys and looked over his shoulder to see what was going on. He saw Clay sprawled out on the floor on his stomach. _'Looks like it was too much for him.'_ Roose was clutching his arm like he was in pain and was hiding from Aracd, or so it seemed. Yamagi, on the other hand, had a power blade in one hand and his beam rifle in the other, firing away at Aracd. Aracd had his defense field up, but Zero could see it shimmering, meaning that his field is going to give away soon.

Yamagi was soon out of ammunition and could not continue using his beam rifle. So he threw it onto the ground next to him and ran at Aracd, trying to get a clean cut at the older boy. Once in swinging distance, Yamagi pulled his arm back and got ready to swing his blade, but was not fast enough. Aracd dropped his defense field, took out his rifle and fired two shots right into the pro-ing's chest, making Yamagi stumble back in surprise. Still caught in that surprised state, Aracd took advantage of that and attacked with his blade, just enough so that Yamagi was disabled for the rest of the fight.

Zero snapped out of his trance and whispered to Kizna, "Hey, tell Wreka to cut off all nerve impulses to the pro- ing, because it looks like Roose is in pretty bad shape. He's hiding right over there," Zero said, pointing to the huddled figure. Aracd caught sight of Roose soon after and stalked over towards him. "Kizna, hurry! Otherwise it will just be Hiead and I," Zero whispered frantically to his repairer.

Kizna turned to Wreka and conveyed the message. After Wreka made the necessary adjustments, Roose thanked his repairer and got back onto his feet. He tried to put up a good fight, but apparently, it was not good enough because Aracd could take him down easily. He then turned his attention onto Zero, trying to stare him down.

Zero could see the pro- ings chest moving up and down at an unusually fast rate. '_Must be tired out. Well, maybe I can use that to my advantage,'_ he thought, formulating a plan in his head as he watched Aracd's every move very carefully.

Soon, using Aracd's fatigue factor to his advantage, Zero found himself standing over the now disabled pro- ing of Aracd's. Zero took in a few deep gulps of air, trying to make his heart beat slow down. He felt a drop or two of sweat roll down the side of his head, and used his hand to hastily wipe it away. He turned his head back over to see how Hiead was fairing. Zero could see that Hiead was not going to hold up much longer and went to his side.

Letting out a scream, Zero flew at Force's pro-ing, and as he did so, his hair turned a light greenish color. With all the strength he could muster up, Zero crashed into the pro-ing that was on top of Hiead's, giving the silver haired boy enough time to get back up onto his feet. Zero picked himself up off the ground, his hair still indicating he had an EX reaction, and ran back over to Hiead.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Hiead barked out, roughly pushing Zero away. But that small move was enough to send Hiead back down onto his knees. Zero grasped the other boy by the shoulders and hauled him back up onto his feet.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zero saw Force coming back to attack them. Pulling back from Hiead, Zero took out his power blade and ran at the other boy. He asked Kizna to reroute his energy to his defense field when he saw Force take out his rifle and attack him from a distance. No harm came to Zero and once he was in swinging range, he quickly asked Kizna to reroute his energy this time to his blade and then swung the blade down.

Force lifted his rifle in defense, not having enough time to put his field up. The rifle was enough to prevent him from getting cut in half, but was not enough to prevent Force's rifle from being snapped in two. Dropping the rifle, Force decided to go for the old fashioned way and attacked Zero with his hands and feet. Both of them soon found themselves rolling on the ground, acting as if they were fighting over a piece of fresh meat.

Hiead on the other hand was too tired to do anything else and just stood in place as he watched the scene unfold before his eyes. He collapsed back onto his knees, his legs, too weak to hold out any longer.

Zero kept throwing punches at Force's face, but at the same time, blocked the same amount of punches that were thrown at him. He felt a fist connect with his jaw, and his head was sent flying in the other direction. It almost felt as if his head was going to snap off. Pushing the blue haired boy off him, Zero rolled on top of him and started to throw punch after punch in his face, not letting him take a breather.

After what seemed like forever, Zero stopped to take a break, but was caught by surprise when Force took advantage of the respite given to him and kicked Zero off of him. He took out his blade and went for Zero's chest, but seeing this, Zero moved out of the way. Unfortunately, he did not see the blade quick enough because it ended up slicing the pro-ing's right arm off. Zero grinded his teeth in pain, now allowing Force the pleasure of hearing him scream in pain. Zero brushed back a bluish- green tendril from his face and quickly decided what his next move was going to be.

Force glanced at Hiead and saw him panting heavily, trying all he could to prevent himself from fainting. '_Ha. I'll take him out now, so I won't have to worry about him later,'_ Force thought as he quickly finished off Hiead. Turning his attention back to Zero, he saw the boy fly at him. Force got his power blade ready, tightening his fists around the blade until his knuckles turned white. Zero activated his defense field and ran head on into Force.

Force let out a grunt as Zero's head collided with his chest and both boys were sent onto the ground, both breathing heavily. Trying to get up, Zero only managed to lift himself up an inch or two off the ground but then collapsed back onto the form of Force. Again, the older of the two was too exhausted to move another muscle, and with Zero's weigh added on top of him, was too tired to push the boy off, so he left him stay there. He felt his muscles relax, and was surprised to see that he did not have the strength at all to lift any of his body parts. '_I guess I underestimated the little guy,'_ Force thought with a smirk. '_It seems like I'll have competition this time.'_

Zero felt his hair turn back to the chocolate brown color Kizna adored, and felt his eyelids pulling down on him. He closed his eyes for a brief second, or so he thought. By the time he opened his eyes again, he was back inside, all cleaned up, a cheerful Kizna waiting to greet him. He blinked a few times and turned to Kizna with a questioning glance. A dark haired girl walked up to the pink haired repairer and tapped her on the shoulder.

Kizna turned around and smiled at Force's repairer.

"Guess I was wrong about Enna," she said, giving an apologetic smile.

"It was ok," Kizna replied, shaking the girl's hand. She turned back to Zero and said, "Great job. It ended as a tie between you and Force. Both of you fell at the same time."

"Oh," Zero said in a slightly disappointed tone.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kizna asked. "You're not upset because you didn't win are you? Hey, you took out two of the elite candidates there are on G.O.A., Zero. You should be _very_ proud of yourself." Zero just nodded and continued to stare at the ground. "And you know what?" she asked, stepping closer to him. "I think you're the first underclassmen to beat them in a pro-ing battle," Kizna added in a whisper.

Zero's eyes widened and he glanced up at her. "Really?" She nodded. "Cool," he replied, grinning. Kizna smiled and gave him a light hug, then stepped back from him.

Erts walked up to Zero, gave him a firm handshake and said, "That was a very well fought battle Zero. Keep up the great work. Maybe I can battle you sometime, just for old times sake."

Zero nodded and said, "That would be awesome." He looked over Erts shoulder and saw a tall green- haired man standing behind him.

"Hello. I'm Gareas," the green haired man introduced. Zero shook his hand and smiled.

"So it was you're goddess I fell into," Zero mused, a small smile lighting his face.

Gareas grumbled under his breath and changed the topic. "Great battle out there. Kept me on my toes… you'll become a great pilot one day Zero," Gareas said, giving a small nod. He turned around walked back over to Azuma when he heard the instructor call his name. Zero stared at his retreating figure with a satisfactory feeling in his heart.

----

Teela rushed down the halls with a slight feeling of dread hanging heavily over her shoulders. _'I hope he knows what he is doing,'_ she thought as she turned the corner and entered a darkened room.

_Author's note: Please R&R! Chapter 12 should be coming out in about two weeks at the latest. (Around the 25th of June)_


	12. 12 Wake Up Calls

Partner or Lover Chapter 12: **Wake Up Calls  
**  
Walking out from the battle room with Kizna and Erts on either side of him, Zero felt pretty happy about what he had accomplished today. He saw Azuma rush past him, almost knocking him down. Zero frowned as he held onto his two friends for support. "Where is he off to?" Zero thought out loud.  
  
"Must be important if he's in a hurry," Erts said. Kizna nodded in agreement.  
  
In an hour or so, Zero, Kizna, Erts, and the rest of the gang found themselves seated once again in the mess hall for lunch. They seated themselves around their usual table with their lunches, talking about whatever the topic was for the day.  
  
After lunch finished, Zero and Erts decided to head off out of the mess hall, when they heard Kizna holler back at them before they left. "Hey! Hold up you guys," Kizna screamed as she ran to catch up.  
  
Zero lifted his eyebrows in question and she said, "the rest of the girls... well at least Wreka and Saki are being a pain right now so I thought I could hang out with you guys... that is if you don't mind..."  
  
"Sure," Erts said, nodding towards the pink haired repairer.  
  
As they walked down the halls, it was mainly about the ingrids, Erts and Zero contributing the most to the conversation. Some where in the middle though, Erts suddenly remembered what Teela had asked of him the day before.  
  
Erts' eyes immediately widened in remembrance and he asked, "Kizna, Zero, I need to talk to you guys. Can you please meet me in the gym, say... like two hours before dinner?" Both nodded and they continued on their way.  
  
"I'll meet you before dinner, but for now, I just want to go find a nice bed to rest in," Zero said as he felt his eyes droop a bit. He heard Kizna chuckle beside him and he tried to hit her lightly on the arm, but found that he was too tired to do so. Erts and Kizna took Zero back to his room and let him get some rest.  
  
"So Kizna," Erts started, trying to start up a conversation with the pink- haired repairer. Truth be told, he was not as close to her as he was to Zero, but being Zero's girlfriend, he had a feeling that he would be seeing a lot more of Kizna in the weeks to pass.  
  
"Hey Erts, you think you would be able to train me in the art of fencing?" Kizna suddenly asked out of the blue.  
  
The only reply Erts could come up with was, "huh?" as he gaped openly at her.  
  
Kizna sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and said, "Well, a long time ago, I myself wanted to be a pilot but did not have the proper requirements to become one so I became a repairer. And you know how Azuma trains the repairers in the same fashion that he trains the candidates. We run the same number of laps, now the candidates have to repair the pro-ings just like us, and we're learning pretty much the same things. But I feel like I can do more for Zero..." Kizna explained.  
  
Erts nodded and urged her to go on.  
  
"Well, if I can at least get a feel for how it is out there for Zero, maybe I can appreciate what he does more. And perhaps I can help him on his battle moves than just sit in front of the monitor and watch as he gets pummeled. I want to get a first hand feel for what he does."  
  
"All right Kizna. If that is what you want to do, then perhaps I can help you," Erts said grinning at the pink- haired repairer.  
  
"Thank you Erts," she exclaimed as she gave him a light hug.  
  
"What's this?" a voice drawled out behind them. Kizna jumped back slightly and turned her head.  
  
"Hiead!" she chastised as she placed a hand over her fast- beating heart.  
  
"Tsk, tsk... cheating on your boyfriend now?" Hiead asked, grinning slightly. Kizna glared at the silver- haired boy and huffed. Erts just snickered at her reaction. Hiead, shaking his head, walked into the room, the door closing behind him.  
  
Kizna sighed but then perked up when Erts asked, "So, you want to get started now?"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes, we can work on fencing for now," Erts said as he took off towards the gym.  
  
----  
  
Teela rushed down the halls with a slight feeling of dread hanging heavily over her shoulders. 'I hope he knows what he is doing,' she thought as she turned the corner and entered a darkened room.  
  
The man sitting in front of her did not have youth on his side. He brushed a few strands of gray hair behind his ears and leaned against the table on his elbows. "Please sit down Teela," the man offered, pointing out the chair in front of his desk. She nodded and took her seat.  
  
"Dr. Crow," Teela started, but stopped when Dr. Crow lifted one hand, motioning for her to stop talking.  
  
"It's okay Teela. I know what is going on around here. No need to explain anything to me," Dr. Crow said, giving her a small smile of reassurance. The blue- haired girl eased back into her chair, her shoulders slumping down in relief. "Now, who do you think is best?"  
  
Teela lifted her head and looked the man in the eye. "I think Rei is the best, even if he is an underclassmen. He has made great progress over these past few months hasn't he?" Teela asked the gray- haired man. He nodded.  
  
"Yes he has."  
  
"But I'm afraid that Errn- Laties might not accept him for Eeva- Leena has already called him to her," Teela explained. Dr. Crow suddenly got up from his chair, walked around his desk and kneeled in front of Teela.  
  
He put his hands on the chair's arm rests and said, "Teela, do not worry yourself to death on these matters. Whom ever the goddess picks, it will be her choice and her choice alone. You know they will not go wrong... Or so I hope," he said, adding the last part in a whisper.  
  
Teela smiled for the first time since she got back to G.O.A. "Thank you," she said. "At least I know you can reassure me on any insecurities that I have."  
  
The man chuckled and gave her a pat on the leg as he stood up once again. "If you ever need to see me again, do not hesitate. I will see what I can do about the next pilot, but for now, enjoy your stay here for it will not last long I am afraid," Dr. Crow said in a somber tone. Teela nodded and stood up.  
  
"Thank you again," she said as she walked over to the closed door. She turned around; saw Dr. Crow nod once, and then she let herself out of the room. Unbeknown to him however, Teela still had a little uncertainty that she knew she could not talk to him about... if they were truly doing the right thing by fighting the Victim.  
  
----  
  
"Hey, wait up Erts," Kizna screamed at the blonde haired boy as she broke into a jog to catch up to him. "So are we going to the gym now?" Erts nodded.  
  
They walked silently until they reached the front enterance of the gym. Erts pushed the two great doors open and stepped inside. He waited until Kizna was inside before he let the doors close behind them. Kizna then turned to Erts and gave him a questioning glance, silently asking him what to do now.  
  
"Well, if everything is as I remember it, then the equipment should be over here," Erts mumbled to himself as he walked over to a far corner of the gym. Opening a small compartment door, he rummaged through the closet until he could find what he was looking for. When his hand landed on something sharp, he gave a slight yelp and immediately pulled his hand back. He examined it for any injuries, and seeing a light scratch that could only be made from a fencing sword, he said, "Well, it seems I've found what we're looking for Kizna."  
  
Kizna walked over to the closet and stood by Erts, watching curiously as he thrust his hand back into the closet and gathered the things he needed. First he pulled out two fencing helmets, then the suits, and last, the swords. "Here we go," Erts exclaimed as he closed the closet with his foot.  
  
"Ok, this is what you do first," he explained as he strapped on his armor. He explained how to put it on and helped Kizna with her suit. Then they strapped on their helmets and grabbed their swords. Walking over to the middle of the gym, Erts started with the basics. "I'll teach you the very beginning steps. The foot positions, streching exercises, and battle positions. Tomorrow, or whenever you want to meet again, we can start the real stuff. How does that sound?" Erts asked.  
  
Kizna nodded. "That sounds fine to me."  
  
"Ok then." Erts placed his sword down on the ground and sat down beside it. He patted the floor beside him and indicated that she take a seat beside him on the gym floor. Once seated, Erts took Kizna through various streching exercises to get her muscles ready for other things. Once through with that, they both got back up onto their feet and grabbed their swords off the floor.  
  
"Here are a few of the basic positions when holding your sword," Erts started off. "Make sure your sword is always pointing away from your body and never at your body." Kizna nodded in acknowlegment. He once again took her through the basic sword holding techiniques until he was satisfied with her performance.  
  
"You're a fast learner," Erts exclaimed. Kizna, in response, blushed at the compliment. Erts chuckled when he could feel her embarrasement. "Ok, now I'll show you a few of the basic moves." Erts held the swoard in front of his body and swung it downwards to the ground. Then he proceeded to show her a few other moves, explain their use and their names, and then said, "How about you give it a try?"  
  
Kizna nodded and tried to mimic his moves. At one point, when she just could not perform one of the exercises, Erts came up behind her, held onto her hands, and gently took her through the motions.  
  
Once done with the lesson, Kizna whipped off her helmet and took in a deep breath. "Wow, I did not know sword fighting would be so complicated..." she muttered, taking a seat on the cold, hard floor beneath her. Letting out the deep breath that she had been holding, she picked herself off the ground with the help of her sword and walked over to where Erts was putting his equpiment away. She silently hands him her sword, helmet, and armor, the blonde haired boy only emitting a small "thank you", then closing the closet door.  
  
By this time, a couple of hours passed since the time Kizna and Erts left Zero and Hiead in their room, and the two in the gym decided to head back over to the room to see if Zero was awake. Padding over the soft floor of the halls of GOA, Kizna and Erts soon found themselves face to face with Zero's room door. Knocking twice on the metal door, Erts stepped back and waited for the door to open. There was the sound of footsteps inside the room, indicating that someone was coming to open the door. Hiead, once the door was open, tried to glare at the intruders but was interrupted by a yawn. Kizna pushed Hiead to the side and peeked into the room. She saw Zero still fast asleep, lying on top of the bedsheets, his arms and legs spread out, hanging off the sides of the bed. Kizna shook her head and pushed her way into the room. She dissmissed the quiet 'Hey!' she got from Hiead and walked over to the brown- haired teenager.  
  
Sitting down on the bed beside him, she let her gaze linger on his face longer than necessary, taking in his features as he slept. As if he knew she was staring at him, Zero groaned and turned his head slightly, a frown forming on his face. Kizna smiled, ran a hand through his mousy hair and finally let her hand rest on his cheek. Bending down, she placed a small kiss on his lips, pulled back up and grinned. Bending back down, she placed her lips next to his ear and whispered, "Zero, wake up." Yet the boy did not move an inch. She slowly kissed her way down from his ear to his jaw, but she still got no response out of the chocolate- haired boy.  
  
Groaning, she turned around and asked Hiead, who was watching her every move, if he had a small bucket in the bathroom. He gave her a weird look but nodded nevertheless. Still with that silly grin on her face, Kizna ran over to the bathroom, grabbed the small bucket, more like a bowl, from the bathroom floor, turned the handle of the sink tap and waited for the water to get to the desired temprature. Once she was satisfied, Kizna filled the bowl up with ice cold water and came back into the room, making sure she did not spill any water. Erts just looked on with an amused look on his face.  
  
Kizna placed the bowl on Zero's bedside table and climbed onto the bed. Carefully placing a leg on the other side of Zero, she slowly moved her body so that she was straddling his waist. She leaned over, picked the bowl of ice cold water off the bedside table and placed it on his stomach. Zero moved slightly, but it did not phase him to such a degree that he would wake up. Kizna dipped her hand into the bowl and sprayed a few drops of water at Zero's face. The only response she got was an annoyed groan out of him and she frowned. "Fine, you asked for it Zero," Kizna muttered under her breath as she lifted the aforementioned bowl high into the air.  
  
Kizna turned the bowl slowly downward, so that a little water would splash on his face. Zero mumbled something incoherent, frowned, and continued sleeping. Kizna laughed at his reaction. Once she finally stopped laughing, she put on a serious face and dumped all the contents in the bowl onto Zero's face and chest. Kizna just sat back and watched his reaction.  
  
Zero's eyes shot open as soon as the water seeped into his skin. The chocolate haired boy took in great gulps of air, trying to get his voice to work. He spluttered out something that made no sense whatsoever, so he just stopped trying to talk for now. Once he got his heart to stop having a seizure, he realized what happened. Fury was etched in every cell of his body, his eyes flashing with rage. Zero even heard someone laughing at him. That only fueled his anger. Zero sat up, only to end up bumping heads with someone. Closing his eyes, he rubbed the spot on his wet forehead where he collided. Then only was it that he realized someone was sitting on him. _'Well, it can't be Hiead. He would kill himself before he sits on me... Clay? ... Nah, he would be too chicken to even think of doing anything like this...'_ Zero opened his eyes and glanced in front of him and came face to face with...  
  
"Kizna?" Zero asked, shocked beyond believe that she would do something like this to him. He heard her laugh once again and he growled. "That.... That was... HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?!" Zero finally managed to ask. That only sent the pink haired girl into another fit of giggles. Zero was taking in deep breaths to calm his nerves, but it wasn't doing him any good. He glared at his laughing repairer. Kizna was finally able to subside her giggles for a little bit and looked Zero into the eye.  
  
"You wouldn't wake up," she said grinning as she ran a hand through his wet locks. Zero rolled his eyes.  
  
"Well you could have just yelled in my ear, or knocked me out of bed or something... instead of DUMPING FREEZING WATER ON ME!" Zero burst out. Kizna just laughed at his response.  
  
"Aww... Well, I'm sorry..." Zero smiled.  
  
"Actually," Kizna started; Zero felt his smile falter. "I'm not that sorry... I'll tell you that I didn't think of throwing you out of bed to wake you, but you have got to admit that it was funny!" Kizna said as she went into another fit of laughter. Zero sighed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled Kizna closer to him as he felt a tad bit colder because he was drenched and wet. Kizna wrapped her legs around his waist in response.  
  
Zero glanced around and spotted Erts and Hiead standing by the door. Erts was snickering silently, while Hiead had a big smirk on his face. Zero motioned for them to come in. Erts took a seat by Zero, on the bed next to his and Hiead took a seat on his bed. But immediately after Hiead took his seat, he jumped back up, his eyes widening slightly. "I just remembered I have to go meet someone in a few minutes," Hiead said as he walked out the room. The door closed behind the silver haired boy and that just left a pilot, repairer and candidate in the room. Kizna buried her head into the side of Zero's neck after she had stopped laughing and mumbled a soft "sorry" before lifting her head and gazing into his bright blue eyes.  
  
Zero smiled and said, "I'm cool with it... err... no pun intended," laughing lightly after he finished. Kizna gave him a light hug and pulled back when Erts cleared his throat. The girl felt a faint blush take over her cheeks and she sat silently on Zero's lap.  
  
"So, where'd you take my girlfriend?" Zero asked Erts giving him a playful grin.  
  
"Oh, you know. Over to the recreation room for some alone time, then over to meet the other goddess pilots to show Kizna off..." Erts said laughing. Zero soon joined him, their laughter filling the room. Kizna glaired at the two boys.  
  
"You do know that I am right here, right?" Kizna asked.  
  
Zero chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Of course." Erts smiled at the show of affection.  
  
Kizna suddenly felt Zero shiver through his wet clothes. She gasped and then said, "Zero, you'd better get out of these clothes."  
  
Zero nodded. "You may be right." Kizna unwrapped her legs from around his waist, crawled over to the next bed, and sat beside Erts. Zero pulled himself off his bed, went over to his dresser, and took out a clean pair of clothes.  
  
"Hey Zero, did you know Kizna-"Erts started off, only to be cut off by Kizna herself with her hand covering his mouth. Erts immediately felt fear and hesitation from her and he gave her a questioning look.  
  
"I don't want him to know just yet!" Kizna hissed into Erts' ear. Erts nodded.  
  
"What were you saying Erts?" Zero asked, turning to face Erts. He grabbed a shirt out from the drawer and forgot Kizna was there as he took off the current shirt he was wearing. Kizna's eyes widened and she felt her eyes glued onto his now exposed chest.  
  
"Ahh, nothing Zero. Forget it," Erts said. Zero frowned and glared at Erts. He had a feeling that the blonde- haired boy was keeping something from him. Feeling someone gazing at him, he turned his head over to Kizna and saw her heated gaze on him. He felt the blood rush to his face and neck when he saw her eyes fill with desire. He gulped and quickly put on the clean shirt, throwing the wet one over to the side for the time being.  
  
_AN: Well, I know this chapter is not as long as the previous one but the ideas just suddenly left me... I have future plans, but the stuff inbetween the present and the future need to be sorted out... I will most likely have the next chapter in about two weeks, that would be July 9th. Check back then for an update. I will start trying to get a new chapter out every two weeks from now on... every other Friday if possible. Hopefully I can make the next chapter a longer one... Please review and tell me what you think._


	13. 13 A Room within The Room

Partner or Lover Chapter 13: **A Room within the Room**

"Ahh, nothing Zero.  Forget it," Erts said.  Zero frowned and glared at Erts.  He had a feeling that the blonde- haired boy was keeping something from him.  Feeling someone gazing at him, he turned his head over to Kizna and saw her heated gaze on him.  He felt the blood rush to his face and neck when he saw her eyes fill with desire.  He gulped and quickly put on the clean shirt, throwing the wet one over to the side for the time being.

Taking a seat on the the bed across from where Kizna and Erts were sitting, Zero asked, "So, what do you guys want to do for the time being?…"  Before the other two could give their answer, Zero's eyes widened and he turned his head towards Kizna, looking at her intently.  "Are you allowed to be in here?"

Kizna blinked, not expecting that kind of question from Zero.  "Uh… I think so?" she finally managed to say, a questioning look on her face.  "Well, if I'm not supposed to be here, what others don't know, won't hurt them… right?"  She turned and looked at Erts.  He just shrugged his shoulders.

"I wouldn't know… Rome never came to my sleeping quarters…" Erts said, grinning sheepishly.  "And many people didn't come near me because of… well, you know," he trailed off, a lone look taking over his eyes. 

"Hey, don't worry about it.  We're here," Zero said cheerfully as he slapped a hand on Erts' back.  Erts grimaced and gave a guarded smile. 

--

Erts' head shot up as he heard a loud shrieking noise go off above his head.  He had a startled expression on his face and then turned towards Zero because he could feel a slight excitement radiating from the chocolate haired boy.  Erts shook his head.

"What is that noise?" Kizna asked as her ears folded down on top of her head to reduce the noise.  Since her cat- like ears were more sensitive than a regular human's ear, she had to be more careful. 

Erts stood up and straightened his clothes and walked towards the door.  "It's for alerting the goddess pilots that there's an attack on G.O.A.  The victim are back," Erts said with a hint of sadness in his voice, but neither Kizna nor Zero caught it. 

"Ooh, do you think I can watch?" Zero asked.

Erts raised an eyebrow.  "Sure you can… but from inside G.O.A." Erts gave a small chuckle, smiled, and then walked out the door.  The loud noise became faster once Kizna and Zero were out into the hallway, hot on Erts' trail towards the "Ingrid hanger". 

Erts broke into a run as he yelled over his shoulder, "this is an emergency.  You two better find somewhere safe to stay for the time being."  Zero and Kizna took a glance at each other and fell back, watching Erts' retreating body turn the corner, now completely out of sight. 

The two of them soon heard a voice overhead telling them that this was an emergency and they should find a safe place.  Zero ignored the voice and ran over to the window; watching with child like eyes as the Ingrids took off into space, ready to fight off the approaching victim. 

Kizna came over by his side silently and watched along side him, taking a new interest in the abilities of an Ingrid. 

--

Teela felt the Zeta skin stick and conform to her body as she slid back into her Ingrid once again.  Closing her eyes, she went through the routine of activating her Ingrid and felt the same reassuring presence behind her that she could always rely on. 

"Let's go," Teela whispered as she silently commanded her Ingrid to take off and confront the on coming victim. 

She saw the other four pilots flying her way so she turned around and flew over to where she thought the victim were.  At first she saw a speck far off in the distance, then it took on the form of the victim, and she saw a few more.  Soon, a couple more came into view, and then she found herself and the rest of the pilots trying to take on hundreds of victim at the same time. 

"Well then, let's get this party started!" Rioroute exclaimed as he fired up his Ingrid and shot head on towards the oncoming victim. 

"Rioroute! Wait!" Gareas yelled as he fired his Ingrid and chased after his friend. 

"What a moron… the two of them," Yuu exclaimed quietly, watching from afar.  He decided it would be better to help them than to watch them get killed.  So with a silent "swoosh", his power- boosted swords shot out from the arms of his Ingrid and he flew in after the two. 

Teela, watching as the scene unfolded, contacted Dr. Kuro. 

"What is it?" she heard Dr. Kuro's rough voice saturating the inside of her Ingrid. 

"We need more back up.  Send the pro-ings out here at once."

"Five minutes at most," Dr. Kuro replied as he rushed out of his office to inform Azuma. 

Teela waited patiently, keeping an eye out for the soon-to-be arriving pro-ings and the three Ingrids who were completely surrounded by victim.  Teela heard a big bang and automatically turned her head towards the noise.  She caught sight of Gareas, a couple of yards away from the swarming victim, a big gun in his hand.  He was firing shot after shot, blasting away at the victim. 

Erts felt himself grimace as he saw a whole bunch of victim shot into smithereens, their remains spread all over the place.  His eyes widened as soon as he saw one of the victim get blown up by Gareas' gun; it's body splattered all over Rioroute's Ingrid.  Erts felt himself turning away in disgust. 

The pro-ings were ready to be dispatched.  All they needed were the pilots.  Azuma, once he got word that the pro-ings needed to be sent out, raced around G.O.A., telling all the senior officers to get into their pro-ings and help the Ingrids. 

Azuma finally found candidates eighty-five and eighty-six's room and knocked on the door.  The metal door rattled under the teacher's strong grip.  Yamagi rushed to the door and yanked it open, a part of him was afraid that the door might fall down if he waited too long to answer.  He stood face to face with a stern looking Azuma and the purple haired boy took a step back and blinked, trying to figure out why his teacher was standing in front of his room.

"You two, get your repairers and go to your pro-ings.  I expect you to be outside in two minutes at most.  Now GO!" Azuma yelled.  A hint of worry was etched on his face but luckily, Roose nor Yamagi could catch sight of it because Azuma immediately turned away and walked over to the next room, candidates eighty- seven, eighty- eight, and eighty- nine's quarters. 

Roose pulled Yamagi back into the room, not wanting to get in trouble with Azuma again, and quickly got dressed in the proper attire.  Once Yamagi was ready, both boys raced over to their repairer's room and banged on the door until the girls opened the door. 

Panting, Roose explained they they needed to go right now and get the pro-ing ready for battle.  The girls got ready and the four of them ran over to the pro-ing hanger, not wasting another minute, knowing that with every minute that goes by, they are putting G.O.A. at more risk. 

Azuma knocked on an identical metal door and Hiead immediately opened it.  Azuma repeated his orders and saw another head pop out from behind a wall.  "Candidate eighty- seven, make sure Enna is ready to go."

"Uh, sir," Clay whispered out.

Azuma glared at the spectacled boy and barked, "Out with it!"

"Zero is not here.  He never got back here. I assume he is out in the halls somewhere, watching the battle."

Azuma grumbled something under his breath, and then composed himself.  "Very well then.  When you get your repairers, tell his repairer to be ready.  I shall go find Enna and give him a piece of my mind."

Clay's eyes widened as he ducked back into the room.  He did not want to think of what Azuma will do to Zero when he found him.  He got ready silently and the silver haired boy and himself went over to their repairer's quarters.  Clay knocked on the door and took a step back.  Ikhny was the one to open the door and was startled to see Hiead and Clay standing in front of the room. 

"Hurry up and get ready.  We have a battle to fight with the victim," Hiead said promptly as he gazed past Ikhny over to the back wall.  He had his cold face back on and not even the slightest emotion was seen on his face.  Ikhny nodded and immediately closed the door.  A moment later, both girls emerged from the room, dressed and ready to go. 

Clay looked around and then asked, "Where is Kizna?" 

"She never got back.  I don't know where she is.  She usually comes back to the room if something like this happens…" Saki said, trailing off. 

"Well then, Zero and Kizna must be off somewhere watching the battle…" Clay concluded.  "Lucky them…" he whispered under his breath as they headed off to their pro-ings. 

--

Clay gulped down his fear as he felt himself shooting off into space.  "This is it," he told himself over and over again, trying not to loose his nerve.  "Ohh, I can't do this," he whispered out loud. 

Saki overheard his moaning and said, "Don't worry, you'll be fine.  Just think of this as an exercise from the simulator."

Clay groaned.  "I can't.  I know this is the real thing and nothing else will make me change my mind," he sighed. 

"Well, there's no turning back, so might as well take it like a man," said Saki, giving her partner a small smile.

"Are you implying something?" Clay asked as he glared at his repairer.  Saki just smiled innocently at him. 

Azuma entered the room with an air of authority around him.  All the repairers were situated in a big room with hundreds of consoles lining the four walls of the spacious room.  This way, Azuma could monitor all the pro-ings at once without running from room to room. 

"Okay people.  Pro-ings, ready for battle.  Go for it!" Azuma commanded, watching as hundreds of pro-ings flew over to the swarming mass of victim to aid the five Ingrids. 

--

Zero silently watched as the three Ingrids tried to take on a ton of victim.  "They need help," he muttered under his breath.  "I think I'll try to help them Kizna," he said, finally making up his mind. 

"What do you plan to do?" Kizna asked, turning to look him in the eye. 

"Uh," Zero started.  His attention was soon diverted as he saw a flash of light from the corner of his eye.  "What's that?" Zero asked, as he pointed at the approaching pro-ings. 

Kizna's eyes widened.  "They're pro-ings, Zero.  I think we might have missed something," she stated, watching the pro-ings fly into action.  "Azuma must have come to our rooms to ask for our help in the battle.  Come on Zero," Kizna commanded as she pulled on his arm and prepared to drag him away. 

The two teenagers headed off to the pro-ing hanger.  On their way, Kizna stopped by the main room where all the repairers and Azuma were.  She pressed the keypad and waited for it to open.

"Zero, the door's not opening," Kizna said with a frown_.  'They must have locked it to make sure no one else would come in…'_  "Come on, I'll go over to the battle room." 

Once suited up and ready to go, Zero maneuvered the pro-ing over to the exit door and waited for Kizna to go over to battle room.  Once he got the "okay" from Kizna, Zero pushed a button the sidewall allowing the thick metal door of G.O.A. open and Zero took off into space, chasing after the rest of the pro-ings. 

--

Back in the main room where the rest of the repairers were, Azuma glanced out into space through the big glass window that was located on the sidewall, above the repairers' monitors.  Azuma caught a glance of an object approaching the window in the main room, and he frowned.  As the object flew by, Azuma thought, '_I really hope that's Zero inside that pro-ing. That damn boy, wandering off whenever he wants to…'_ 

--

Teela finally caught sight of the help that was sent and with Erts' help, she distributed out the help equally.  Erts looked on with saddened eyes as the oncoming victim were slaughtered mercilessly.  Even though the victim put up a battle, injuring quite a few pro-ings, they could not hold up against the overwhelming amount of pro-ings. 

"Erts! What are you doing just standing there? Help out!" Gareas yelled as he flew over to Luhma- Klein. 

"Hey Erts!" 

The golden haired boy looked around with a startled look on his face.  "Zero?" 

"Yup!" the brown haired boy exclaimed as he flew over to Erts' side.  Erts could feel the excitement radiating off of Zero.  "Don't worry, we'll get these blasted insects," Zero exclaimed as he flew past Erts, into the battlefield.

Sighing, Erts followed with a heavy heart.

"It doesn't look like Erts' heart is into this battle," Kizna stated as she saw Erts through Zero's 'eyes'. 

"I'll talk to him later.  But for now, we got some victim butt to kick," Zero said as he got his power blade out in one hand, his other hand taking hold of his rifle.  Letting out a loud battle cry- Kizna ended up covering her ears- Zero charged through, slashing away at anything in his way. 

--

Hiead walked through the halls of G.O.A. with a certain destination in mind.  Letting out a breath, he entered the recreation room and his eyes settled on a brown haired girl sitting in a far corner.  She kept her eyes focused outside the window, looking lost in thought.  Walking up to her, Hiead knelt down beside her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.

Startled, Ikhny turned around, her eyes wide.  "OH! Hiead!  How's your arm?"

Hiead's arm was injured because of a Victim attack that took place the day before.  He looked at her for a second, then his arm, and then moved it.  "It's perfectly fine now," he said, giving a slight nod.  "Come on, I want to show you something," he said as he dragged her off the floor. 

She stood up and threw him a questioning look.  Gently taking her hand, he led her off to one side of the recreation room and ran his hand along the wall until it hit something hard.  A hollow sound was the reply he got and he grinned in response.  He slid his hand down the wall until his hand was in the grass and he spread the green tendrils apart.  Spotting a button submerged into the ground, Hiead pressed his thumb against the button, further pushing it into the ground.  Then he stood up and stuck his hand through the wall. 

Ikhny's eyes widened.  '_That's just not possible… people can't move through walls…'_ She gave him a look of disbelief and he just chuckled. 

"No one knows of this.  Well, perhaps the people who made G.O.A., but I don't think any of the students know about this.  Now follow me," Hiead said as he offered her his other hand.  He saw a look of fear pass through her eyes and he said, "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe.  I can assure you that."

Nodding, Ikhny tentatively took his hand and felt herself pulled through the wall.  Closing her eyes, she passed through the wall.  When she opened her eyes once again, she saw an extravagantly decorated room with a comfortable couch that could seat four people, a couple of doors on the other sides of the room, and a computer off in the far corner.  A bathroom was off to the side, as well as a small cabinet, that contained food, and other necessities. 

Blinking, the brown haired girl took in everything, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.  "Wow," was all she could muster up to describe the place. 

Hiead laughed a rare laugh and sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to him.  Turning around, Ikhny looked for the door again.  "Uh, Hiead, how would we get out?"

"The exit is painted in the same colors as the room is.  Look carefully, you'll see it," he replied.  There was a tiny window in the corner of the wall where the two teenagers entered, that let a person see out into the rest of the recreation room, but others could not see in. 

Ikhny came over and took a seat beside the silver haired boy.  They sat down in silence for a few minutes, not having anything to say.  Ikhny let her mind wander back to the first time Hiead confessed that he liked her more than a friend.  She blushed. 

Hiead glanced over at the girl sitting next to him and seeing her blush, he frowned.  Cupping her chin with his hand, he turned her face towards him and asked her what she was thinking about.  She muttered 'nothing' under her breath, but felt the heat rise up to her face once more, covering her face in a cherry hue.  Hiead got a little twinkle in his eye, but kept his cold expression on his face.  Running his other hand through his silver locks, he pulled her face up once more so that he could look her in the eye. 

Leaning down, he could feel her breath upon his lips.  Grinning, Hiead swooped down and placed a kiss onto her lips.  His hand moved from her chin down to her waist as he pulled her a little closer to him.  She was sitting quite a distance from him and it was getting hard on his back to keep leaning over the couch. 

He pushed his lips against hers, loving the feeling of her soft, rose colored lips against his.  Pulling away slightly, he took his free hand and pulled her glasses up so they rested on top of her head, then went back to kissing her.  Ikhny let out a soft moan as Hiead ran his hands down her back and wrapped her arms around his neck. 

All of a sudden, the two teenagers heard a bang and a yelp saturating the recreation room.  Hiead pulled away from Ikhny abruptly, his eyes narrowing in wonder and suspicion.  Ikhny pulled her glasses off her head and placed them back in their proper place, then looked around the place wondering if anyone else found them in this room together.  Satisfied that no one was in the room, Ikhny let out the breath that she had been unknowingly holding, and looked back towards Hiead.  "Do you know what that sound was?" she asked him. 

Hiead shook his head, stood up and went over to the window, and peered out.  He caught a glimpse of a brown haired boy and a pair of cat ears.  Shaking his head, he walked back over to the couch and said, "It's Enna and Towryk."

Ikhny jumped out of her seat and walked over to the window.  Glancing out, she saw Kizna yelling at Zero, and Zero cowering in fear.  She giggled and watched them and their antics.  Hiead heard her giggle.  Frowning, he walked over and looked at the other two teens, glaring at the back of Zero's head. 

'_Ha! Wimp! Scared of your own repairer!'_ Hiead thought smugly, as he looked on and watched Zero get yelled at. 

Zero was shrinking back from a very annoyed Kizna.  She huffed and turned her back on him.  "Kizna," Zero whined.  "I'm sorry!  I didn't mean to worry you like that.  It's not like I wanted to do that either!" Zero said, trying to make her turn around and face him.  "Hey, at least you should be happy that I didn't end up like those other guys in the hospital wing, who are stuck there for months because they got their arm bitten off or something," Zero stated, with a smug look on his face.  Then he gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of loosing his arm or leg. 

Kizna turned around and glared at the chocolate haired boy.  "It's not funny Zero!  I was really worried about you.  How could you just rush out there thoughtlessly???" Kizna yelled.  She glared at him once more, and then sat down on the ground.  "You almost got killed," she whispered. 

Zero sighed and sat down beside her.  "Well, I did see that Victim coming and I did dodge it, so what's the problem?"  Kizna rolled her eyes and decided that it was no use talking to him about her worries about him. 

"Don't worry, I'm fine!" Zero whispered into her ear as he let his lips trail down to her cheek.  Kizna let her eyes close shut, but as she did so, she muttered, "I have a keen feeling that someone's watching us… I don't know from where, or who, but I have a feeling…"

"Then let them," Zero whispered back as his lips trailed down her neck.  Kizna snuggled closer to Zero and enjoyed the feeling of his lips on her neck, lips, cheek… She wrapped her arms around his neck and captured his lips into a fiery kiss. 

Ikhny's eyes widened when she saw Zero kissing Kizna.  She gulped and turned away.  When she turned around, she saw Hiead still staring out the window.  Shaking her head, and thinking, '_Boy's will be boys…'_ she grabbed the back of Hiead's shirt and yanked him away from the window.  "You shouldn't stare like that," she whispered.  Hiead rolled his eyes. 

Grinning, he kissed her once more before walking back to the couch and settling on it. 

_A/n:  I know this too is a short chapter, but I hope I've satisfied you for this week.  I have had no time at all these two weeks to write anything at all… I've been way to busy… I don't think I can even call this a summer… Well, I can promise you that the next chapter will definitely be longer than this one… and it will be coming out on July 23.  Please R&R and let me know how this is! _  

_One question… is he called Dr. Crow, or Dr. Kuro?  Is he the same guy?_          


	14. 14 The Past, Present, and The Rules

Partner or Lover Chapter 14: **The Past, The Present, and The Rules**

Kizna let her eyes close shut, but as she did so, she muttered, "I have a keen feeling that someone's watching us… I don't know from where, or who, but I have a feeling…"

"Then let them," Zero whispered back as his lips trailed down her neck. Kizna snuggled closer to Zero and enjoyed the feeling of his lips on her neck, lips, cheek… She wrapped her arms around his neck and captured his lips into a fiery kiss.

Ikhny's eyes widened when she saw Zero kissing Kizna. She gulped and turned away. When she turned around, she saw Hiead still staring out the window. Shaking her head, and thinking, '_Boy's will be boys…'_ she grabbed the back of Hiead's shirt and yanked him away from the window. "You shouldn't stare like that," she whispered. Hiead rolled his eyes.

Grinning, he kissed her once more before walking back to the couch and settling on it. When Ikhny took a seat beside him a few minutes later, Hiead turned towards her and out of the blue, he asked, "Why did you decide to become a repairer?"

"Wha- wh…" Ikhny stuttered, wide- eyed, before she composed herself and asked once again, "What?"

"Why did you become a repairer?" Hiead asked once again, an amused look dancing over his face.

"Uh," Ikhny started. She did not know what to say with such short notice. "Well, mainly because I needed to get off my colony." Hiead threw a questioning look her way. "The victim were getting ready to attack my colony next, but luckily the Ingrids were there and saved my people." Ikhny's eyes filled up with a sort of hazy mist as her mind was taken back into the past. She was quiet for a few minutes, both of them sitting in the thickening silence, waiting for each other to say something. Then all of a sudden, Ikhny's voice turned stoic, as if she was giving a weather report.

"You want to know why I'm not as aggressive as the other repairers?" Ikhny asked out of the blue, as she turned to Hiead.

Hiead looked into her mist filled eyes and could see a hint of pain and suffering in those brown orbs. Hiead was a bit hesitant, but decided to hear it all. Swallowing, Hiead wrapped an arm around Ikhny's waist and nodded. Something squeezed at his heart when he saw the saddened expression on her face.

The brown haired girl started her explanation in a meek voice with a far off look in her eyes once again. "My father…" she started and then immediately stopped. Hiead frowned in wonder.

"Can I trust you Hiead?" Ikhny whispered, more to herself than to the boy sitting next to her, but nonetheless, it was loud enough for Hiead to hear.

Pulling her close, Hiead whispered yes into her ear. When she did not start again, Hiead then said, "I know I haven't been the best partner a repairer could have. I've been letting my personal problems get in the way of… everything. I'm sorry. But you can trust me now. I promise you I will change… I… I am changing."

Ikhny looked down at the floor, watching as her feet shifted position slightly. Hiead's curiosity was starting to pick at him so he finally asked, "Why don't you try starting from the beginning?" Ikhny nodded once.

She had a downcast look in her eyes as she started again. Taking a deep breath, she started to explain. "My father married my mother about five years before I was born. Apparently my father still was not ready to have kids when I was born and I could always see he had a look of disdain and hesitancy on his face whenever he looked at me. As if I really was not his child… and I had a feeling that he did not want to accept me as his child.

"On our colony, my father," she said this with a slight emphasis, as if she was trying to spit out the word, "taught the boys martial arts and got them ready to become pilots in a way I guess. A few years later, I overheard my father talking to mother about wanting a boy, another child. I was excited, to say the least. When they came back with a child in their arms almost a year later, my father had a disappointed look on his face; I could immediately guess that it was not what he expected.

"It was a girl, a sister.

"Of course, everything would have been better if he had a son, but because he had two girls, he never talked to us much. He had an excuse that he did not know how to talk to girls… was never good at it. That was a bunch of bull shit," Ikhny exclaimed, her eyes narrowing in slight anger.

Hiead raised his eyebrows in surprise, never hearing Ikhny curse like that. She continued.

"A couple of years later, when I was around the age of seven or eight, and my sister was four or five, my father tried to get another baby, this time wanting it to be a boy. When he found out that it would be a girl again, he started to get annoyed. My parents had a huge argument following that day, when they found out it was a girl, and my father walked out on us.

"Of course he came back every couple of days, but I could see he was living with someone else, and when he did come back, it was only to see if we were still alive and well… you know, so it wouldn't weigh too heavily on his conscience. Damn him," Ikhny whispered the last part under her breath.

She felt Hiead's hand run up and down her back in a reassuring manner, and she leaned back into his touch. Leaning slightly against him and the couch, she continued her history. "When he came back, I could always smell something foul on his breath, of course I did not know what it was then, but he would always come back drunk; probably trying to pick up some tramp at a bar or something and try to get a son out of her… When he came back drunk like that, all of his real feelings spewed forth.

"Apparently, he hated us for not being boys. He hated me for being born when he was not financially or mentally ready. He hated my mother for not carrying a boy for him… but of course it was not our faults, but he wanted to believe that it was, to make it easier on him. He would hit us, scream at us, and kick us…

"My mother could defend herself, but with another baby on the way, she had to protect herself first over us… and of course, my father went for the easier targets; us. We had no protection what so ever when he got violent, and it sort of became a habit of mine to shrink away from people who have tendencies that resemble my father's… yelling and trying to degrade me," a silent tear rolled down Ikhny's cheek as she was reliving all of her past memories.

Hiead did not know what to say. "I-…. Ikhny, I didn't know…" He was shocked beyond words. Ikhny could feel that he was blaming himself for all of his past actions and she placed a reassuring hand on top of his hand, which was resting on top of his leg.

"Don't worry about it. You did not know," Ikhny murmured, the blank look still in her eyes. "Because of all the emotional turmoil my mother was put through, she ended up loosing the baby. Of course, it was only then that my father came back and tried to talk my mother back into letting him live with her again, but she refused and kicked him out of the house." Hiead could hear a tiny hint of smug satisfaction in her voice.

"By the time I was around ten years old, my father was still very abusive, but mother had no clue about it since it was only when she was not home, that he made any advances towards my sister and I. It was then that the victim attacked our colony.

"Many of the men and boys got into primitive space pods, trying to fend off the threat the victim posed on our colony, but it was no use. They just came and came, one after another. The technology on our colony was greatly advanced, but it was not enough to stop the victim that were coming our way. Lucky for us, the Ingrids were on their way and came just in time.

"Unfortunately, the victim were able to do serious damage to the colony, killing many of our people, even my father, whom I did not have much sorrow for.

"My mother however was devastated after that attack. With the help of my sister and I, she was able to get her life back in order in a couple of months, but she would never be the same after that. Both my sister and I had no sympathy for what happened to my father, but the pain he caused both of us was still fresh in my mind.

"When I finally opened my eyes and looked around the colony at the destruction caused by the victim, I knew I had to do something. It was then that I made up my mind to become a repairer." Ikhny sighed and turned away from Hiead.

"When I first saw you Hiead, you reminded me so much of my father, with your attitude, that all the memories of him flooded back to me and it left me feeling helpless again. But I know it's not your fault. It was partially mine-"

Hiead grasped her firmly around the waist and turned her head so that she was looking him straight in the eye. "Ikhny," he started, cutting off the brown haired girl. "None of it was your fault. It was all my fault; the way I treated you and everyone else… except for Enna, he deserved it," Hiead muttered under his breath. Ikhny lightly hit him on his arm. "Never say that it is your fault, because it is not. I am to blame completely because I know that I was a total jackass, dolt, idiot, whatever you want to call me, and I plan on changing," he said firmly as he kissed her soundly on the lips to enforce his point.

A couple of hours had passed by the time Ikhny was done with her history lesson, but of course for the reader's sake, I've only given an abridged version of their conversation.

Meanwhile, Zero and Kizna were catching up on some quality time that they had missed over the past few weeks.

----

Zero was just starting to get used to the feeling of Kizna's lips on his, only to find that she had pulled away. He pouted for a split second, but then grinned as he felt Kizna trail her lips down his neck, over to the side of his ear. She nipped playfully at his ear, making him tilt his head to the side involuntarily. Zero could feel Kizna smiling against his ear.

She moved down around his ear, back to his neck, nipping and kissing his skin until she reached his collarbone. Zero could feel Kizna's soft ear rub against his face. He closed his eyes and moved his head slightly so that he could run his lips over her soft, furry ears.

All of a sudden, Zero let out a small laugh as Kizna's ear brushed up against his neck, sending chills down his spine, as well as making him laugh out loud. Kizna frowned and lifted her head, giving him a weird look.

"What?" she asked him.

"Hehe, nothing. It's just that your ear was tickling me…" Now that Zero was hearing himself saying it, he didn't find it quite so funny.

Kizna blinked for a second, then gave a smile and nuzzled him again. Frowning, she lifted her head again and looked around, her ears perked up, trying to pick up any invisible sounds. Zero followed her gaze, but didn't see anything, so he asked, "What is it?"

"I don't feel to comfortable here, in the open… It's not you, I just have a very weird feeling that someone's watching us… and…" Kizna sighed as she trailed off. She climbed off of Zero and sat down on the grass-covered ground.

Zero sat up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I understand. You want to get out of here?"

Kizna nodded. Both teenagers got up and walked out of the recreation room.

----

Erts ran down the hallways looking for a certain someone. His eyes quickly moved from one corner to the other, in a futile attempt to catch whomever he was trying to catch. Sighing, Erts slowed down to a walk and dragged his feet behind him while he looked frantically around him. _'I need to find them! Where the hell could they have disappeared to so fast?'_

Erts grabbed his left arm as he walked, his arm slightly bruised because of the fight that took place the previous day.

The golden haired boy walked through a couple of hallways until he finally spotted a pair of ears down the far end of a nearby hallway. '_Ah ha! I found them.'_

Kizna's ears twitched in anticipation as they heard footsteps approaching their way. "Zero…" Kizna murmured as she turned around.

"Hey Erts!" Zero greeted, slapping Erts on the arm. Erts grimaced and clenched his teeth in pain.

"Zero," he growled out as his right hand instinctively went to cradle his bruised left arm, which was now painfully stinging.

"Oh… sorry," Zero replied sheepishly, trying to gain back his position on Erts' good side.

Erts forgave and forgot in a few seconds and finally remembered what he wanted them for in the first place. "I was looking for you two. I wanted to talk to you yesterday, but because of the victim, I didn't get a chance, and it was a mess after we came back inside, so if you have time, I would like to speak to you two now."

Kizna and Zero nodded in acknowledgement and Kizna said, "Lead the way!" as she grabbed Zero's hand and dragged him behind her as she skipped down the hallway.

The three teens entered the gym room and found a secluded part, where no one would notice them immediately, in a far corner of the room, and took a seat on the floor. The room was, of course, empty because of the many casualties from the day before.

Once they got settled, Erts started.

"Ok you two. Teela wanted me to discuss this with you, seeing that Rioroute might not take this seriously, Gareas has a… grudge, if you must call it, against Zero, Teela is not exactly a very gregarious person, and Yuu would be to serious. So I ended up with this job…" Erts said with a sigh.

The other two companions just blinked in response. Looking at the two unresponsive faces he was getting, Erts said, "Right."

"Well, the thing is, you two know that a candidate having a relationship other than a platonic relationship with his repairer is looked down upon in G.O.A. right?" he got two nods so he continued.

"And for you two to be together, you're sneaking around the place?" Erts asked, lifting an eyebrow. Both teens blushed, but nodded anyhow.

"Well, apparently, the people at the top know that you two are an item, if you so desire to call yourselves that. They are just watching your progress-"

Erts was rudely cut off as Kizna yelled, "They're SPYING on US???"

Erts frowned and said, "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it spying, but yes, quite a few of the top managers know that you two are together. But, the only problem is that since Azuma is currently in charge of Zero and his training, and you know he does not care for, and does not tolerate any foolishness… especially if something is distracting a candidate's attention away from his main focus, he can assign you, Zero, to a different repairer, and you, Kizna, to another candidate, and can, and might forbid the two of you from seeing each other…" Erts finished off with a "conformation nod."

"What? Can he really do that?" Zero exclaimed, his fists clenched tightly in his lap.

Erts nodded once again.

"So what do we do about it?" Kizna asked.

"Well, just be more careful… I'm not completely sure if Azuma knows about the two of you yet, but if he does, then you two have gotten real lucky, because I have known a couple of candidates whom that has happened to. They have been caught having a relationship with their repairer, and they have gotten distracted in middle of a battle because of their repairer, and Azuma has assigned them to different people." Both Zero's and Kizna's faces wore a mask of dread as Erts kept talking.

"All I'm saying is don't let Azuma get a hold of the knowledge that you two are dating. That's all I'm warning you of. I know it's futile to break you two apart, but just have a little more restraint in the more… public places," Erts finished off with a smile.

"Just a little extra information, I'm pretty sure that all of the Ingrid pilots know you two are dating," the blonde haired boy said, laughing. Kizna groaned.

"Anyways, I just wanted to make you two aware of that… and please let Hiead and Ikhny know about this too," Erts requested as he stood up and stretched his legs. Zero blinked.

"How'd you know about Hiead and Ikhny?"

Erts looked at the brown haired boy and raised one eyebrow.

"Right… never mind…"

Kizna just laughed. She stretched her arms in the air and asked, "Well, who's up for a snack?" Erts gave her a have-you-gone-crazy look and Zero raised his hand. Smiling she stood up and said, "What? Never snuck into the mess hall Erts?"

Erts laughed heartily as he followed Kizna and Zero out of the gym, shaking his head as he went. "Never thought you would be a food stealer Kizna. Excuse my lack of terminology…"

Kizna stopped in her tracks. Turning around, she said, "It's not stealing… it's borrowing… what would G.O.A. do if we died of starvation? We're doing G.O.A. a favor…"

Zero and Erts just blinked and stared at Kizna.

"Uh, Kizna, are you feeling alright?" Zero asked, checking the pink haired girl's forehead with the palm of his hand.

"Yes I'm fine!" Kizna snapped, playfully slapping Zero's hands away from her face.

"You're starting to sound like Zero…" Erts explained.

"Oh…"

"Guess he's rubbing off on you!"

"Actually, that's kind of a scary thought… another Zero on G.O.A.? I don't think they could handle it… no; I'm just getting hungry… I didn't have much to eat…"

"I think you're spending a bit too much time with Zero, Kizna…"

"You may be right on that, Erts."

"HEY! I'M RIGHT HERE YOU KNOW!" Zero exclaimed as he stomped off in the direction of the mess hall. Kizna and Erts laughed as they ran to catch up with their fuming friend.

----

From one corner of the recreation room, from the shadows emerged a shady figure. '_Should I tell Azuma of this? … Perhaps I'll wait a little longer before I inform Azuma about this… new development that has occurred in G.O.A. … And it is one of **his** students… tsk, tsk… You're starting to loose your touch Mr. Hijikata.'_

A/N: Ducks the flying tomatoes Ok, I'm sorry for this cliffhanger… if you consider it as one, but I hope you found this chapter entertaining enough. The next chapter will be up on **_August 13!_**

Yes I know that it's not**two **weeks, but instead is **three**. The only reason is that I am updating every two weeks, and on the 6th of August, I will be getting ready for my concert on the 7th, and I really need to focus on that for the next two weeks. So I decided to update the week after that. But after the 7th, I will most defiantly be spending most of my time on the next chapter of this story. Don't worry. Hey! Remember, it's better than waiting for a month for the next chapter! . Please let me know what you thought of this chapter …in the form of a review would be good! ; I don't exactly want calls to my house in the middle of the night… heh...


	15. Chapter Summary: How it all began

**SUMMARY CHAPTER: How the story started…**

I have decided to catch my readers up on what has been happening so far in the story since I know there has been much going on for the past couple of chapters. In addition, I myself have to sort out the storyline. I am taking a short break from the story and when I get a chance I shall continue writing. For now, I have decided to intervene and add a summary chapter. Please note that this will contain some spoilers if you have not read the previous chapters. Also, this summary will not contain **all **the scenes but just the major, plot- needed scenes.

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All right, from the beginning… -flashbacks-

_Part 1:_

_The story starts with Zero and Hiead battling each other. After the battle trials, Azuma is not very happy with the candidate and repairer performance so he makes the candidates learn how to be repairers so that they can better understand what their repairer is going through and perhaps, repairer and candidate will become closer and will function more like a unit, rather than two separate people. Unfortunately for Hiead, he walks out angrily and ends up getting a week's worth of punishment from Azuma. A little later, Zero and Kizna are the only ones left in the repairing room and as they walk back to their respective rooms, the lights go off and Zero and Kizna had a couple of embarrassing moments that make them more aware of their feelings towards one another._

_Another battle takes place the next day, this time, Zero and Clay against Roose and Yamagi. Zero is the last one standing, but Azuma leaves abruptly because he has some other matters to take care of. Meanwhile, Saki and the rest of the group besides Zero, Kizna and Hiead, get a strange idea that Zero and Kizna would make a cute couple and decide to place them together. Little do they know it would cause more trouble than they intended._

_With their plans in action, the "Bring- Zero- and- Kizna- together gang" tries to seat the two together. When that plan fails, they tried leaving them alone together in the mess hall. Zero and Kizna leave for the recreation room and soon, after talking to each other for a bit, partner to partner, they realize they have feelings that go further than friendship for each other. Kizna falls asleep and Zero's hormones start to take over him and he leans in to kiss her. Little does he know that the "gang" is watching them from outside the room. Kizna wakes up and gives Zero a run for his money, as she mentions that she senses someone watching them. Zero apologizes but Kizna hears none of it. She says she will meet him later that night at the same spot and will explain then._

_However, before that time, Zero has another practice battle with Yamagi and Roose. The battle ends up as a tie and Dr. Rill patches up the three candidates. Once back in his room, Zero meets up with Hiead and finds out that he is done with his week's worth of punishment in just a day and half. Zero and Hiead throw some verbal comments back and forth at each other and it soon turns into a battle of the fists. Azuma stomps in and luckily; Clay covers up for the two of them. Later that night, Zero and Kizna meet back up in the rec. room, ready to talk. They finally reveal their feelings towards one another and stay the rest of the night in the room side by side. They decide not to tell the "gang" about this new development and decide to get back at them for trying to set them up in the first place._

_While the "gang" plans frantically, Hiead is having a couple of problems of his own. Zero, during lunch, goes out to meet him and they have a fistfight, since that is the only way Zero can get through to Hiead. Kizna gets a weird feeling and goes to check how Zero is doing. She finds Zero on the floor and yells at Hiead for what he has done to Zero and Ikhny. Hiead finally realizes what he has been doing and takes some time off to think. The "gang" along with Zero and Kizna head out to repair the pro-ings once again since they have another battle the next morning, with Azuma monitoring. They take a break and during that time, Saki pushes Zero and Kizna into a nearby closet and Clay locks the keypad in such a way that it will only open by an official on GOA or right before dinner time. Zero and Kizna take their time and enjoy themselves while the others frantically hope that their plan is working. Unfortunately, as the gang returns to open the door, on their way, a group of victim attack GOA and Kizna ends up injuring her arm. Zero breaks the door down with inhuman power and rushes Kizna to the medical ward with the gang right behind them._

_Kizna ends up having to lay off her arm for a month and during that time, Zero learns how to repair his pro-ing very efficiently. Every now and then, Zero and Kizna sneak out to see each other in the middle of the night. Once Kizna's arm is better, Azuma sets up a battle with Zero and Hiead on the same team, against the other three candidates. Zero and Hiead win and Hiead walks out of the control room in anger. Ikhny tries to bring him back but he ends up yelling at her. She dissolves in a fit of tears and that is how Zero and Kizna find her, crouched in a fetal position against the wall. However, before Hiead leaves, he mutters that he is sorry. Ikhny tries to figure out what he means by that but the others come out at that time._

_That night, Zero and Kizna are in the recreation room, having some alone time when Hiead walks in. Zero does not want Hiead to tell the others so he makes a deal with Hiead. Hiead will be able to ask anything of Zero as long as he keeps his end of the deal. Hiead says he needs time to think about what he wants and leaves. Hiead soon finds that the image of Ikhny will not leave his head and wonders what is wrong with him. As Zero and Clay head out that morning for classes, Clay's attention is diverted and Zero spots Kizna down the hallway. He catches up to her, pulls her into an abandoned classroom, and kisses her silly. Hiead finally realizes he has other feelings towards Ikhny but isn't quite sure what to do about them, so he decides that Zero can help and grudgingly, he asks Zero for his help._

_Kizna and Ikhny have a girl chat and Kizna finds out what is on the other girls mind. A while later, Hiead and Zero have a one-on-one battle and Zero wins. Hiead ends up going to the hospital wing for treatment and Ikhny comes to visit him. The gang tries to give their plans another go as they lock Zero and Kizna in a bedroom this time around. Of course none of the gang members know their plans are working and enter onto a disappointing scene as they all head out for dinner. Kizna talks with Zero sometime that day and together the candidate- repairer team plans to bring Hiead and Ikhny together._

_The next day, Azuma gives the class of ten a lecture on the goddesses, how they work and their pilots. Hiead starts acting weird around Zero but none of them catches on. Kizna and Zero train on his anti- gravity sickness and Kizna finds a way to cure his problems. Zero and Hiead have another go at the pro-ings and Hiead ends up being pummeled. He is a little warmer towards Kizna and Zero as he talks in more friendly tones, not being too sore about loosing. The rest of the "gang" ends up walking in on Zero and Kizna in middle of their "victory- kiss" and the proverbial cat jumps out of the bag, but the gang keeps it a secret from Azuma. Hiead meets up with Ikhny a while later and he confesses his feelings to her. She is a little startled at first, but accepts his feelings and returns them._

_Part 2:_

_We see Teela walking down a darkened hallway and entering a room. She has a talk with a man, who is not reveled, and he says he needs another month to find a person who will take Teela's place in the white goddess. Back in her room, Erts reveals to the blue haired girl that Zero and Kizna are a couple. She throws a fit and demands that Erts talk to the two children about the consequences of the people at the top finding out. The next day, Kizna goes to the recreation room to set her thoughts straight and overhears two people talking about the victim and the white goddess and a boy named Rei. She wonders what they are talking about when Hiead comes out from behind her and asks what she makes of the conversation._

_Later that day, the candidates, mainly Zero and Hiead, have a battle, this time it is against the top of the top candidates; against Force, Aracd, while Erts and Gareas watch from the side lines. The battle ends up as a tie between Force and Zero._

_Kizna gets this idea that Erts can train her in fencing so that she can better help Zero on the field. She will know what he is going through and perhaps be able to help him. Teela, meanwhile, runs into Dr. Kuro and they have a little chat about Zero and which goddess may choose him. A little while later, a battle between the victim and goddess take place and the goddess soon find out that they need back up. So the pro-ings are dispatched. During the battle, Hiead's arm is injured but he handles it well. Hiead walks to the recreation room with Ikhny following him and he shows her a secret door located in the rec. room. They both go in together and have a long chat about their pasts, their futures, etc., and then find out that Zero and Kizna also enter the room a while later._

_We find out about Ikhny's past and how her father treated her. Meanwhile, Zero and Kizna catch up with each other. Erts meets up with Zero and Kizna and explains to them that they have to lie low for a while because "people at the top" cannot find out about them being together. After their chat, Kizna gets hungry so the three of them sneak into the storage room, where GOA keeps it's fresh foods and Erts, Zero and Kizna grab a handful of items to take back._

Now this is where we currently are. If the story prolongs to another 15 chapters, I shall do another summary of the story then. Until then, Enjoy!

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Please note, I shall put the next chapter up in a short while. It will take me some time to complete.

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	16. 15: The Art of Divination

A/N: Just a little note, I've decided on making G.O.A. contain three floors:

**FIRST FLOOR**: contains game rooms, shopping stores, anything recreational

**SECOND FLOOR**: classrooms, pro-ing hanger, control rooms, Cueval- where the pro-ing battles take place, mess hall, candidate's rooms, goddess pilots rooms, any other equipment relating to the candidates and their training, the recreation room, medical wing

**THIRD FLOOR**: contains teachers' rooms, the 'higher-up's' rooms, meeting rooms, etc. (students are off- limits to this floor most of the time.)

**Note:** The goddesses/Ingrids (located within G.I.S.) will have a docking bay located on the first floor of G.O.A.

------------

**Partner or Lover Chapter 15: _The Art of Divination_ (or something close to it).**

The three teenagers crept through the halls of G.O.A., trying not to grab too much attention to themselves, as they made their way to the mess hall. Once they entered the hallway that led to the mess hall, the two candidates and the repairer walked past the mess hall and entered the door adjacent to aforementioned room.

Walking through the double doors, with Zero in the lead, the three of them walked one behind the other through the long corridor leading to the main kitchen on G.O.A.

Hearing Kizna gasp, Zero turned around and questioned her silently.

"Duck!" Kizna whispered sharply as she grabbed the two boys by their shirts and pulled them into an alcove in the wall.

Erts had just enough time to utter a small "huh?" before he was yanked in along with Zero and Kizna.

Just as the three teenagers managed to fit themselves in into the alcove, a member of the kitchen staff walked by, his thick, sturdy boots clicking against the clean, marble- finish surface. Luckily, the guy was carefully perusing a piece of paper in his hands and walked blindly past the three adolescents.

Kizna, breathing a sigh of relief, untangled herself from the other two and continued on her way down the hallway. The two boys scrambled up off the white, sparkling floor and ran to catch up with Kizna. They continued to tip toe down the halls until they got to the main entrance of the kitchens. Two magnificent double doors enclosed the cooking perimeter. Kizna looked around and finally spotted what she was searching for. Walking to a door on her right, Zero followed her, while Erts stared curiously at the door in front of him.

"Uh Kizna, isn't this the door we're supposed to go through?" Erts asked. All of a sudden, he felt a very strong emotion radiating from the pink haired girl: slight irritation coupled with pity.

"Of course not. If we enter through those doors, most of the kitchen staff will see us. We enter this door," Kizna said as she pointed at the door marked "STORAGE." As she walked up to the door, Kizna muttered under her breath, "Erts definitely needs to get out more often."

Taking out a small pin, she pushed it through the doorknob on the door and wiggled the pin around until she heard a small 'click'ing noise. Satisfied, she swung the door open and dragged the two boys through.

"You know," Kizna whispered, as she closed the door behind her, "the kitchen staff really should change their locks. Using old-fashioned locks from the 21st century is kind of useless around here."

Zero reached for the lights and flicked the switch up, watching as the whole room illuminated itself in a soft, yellow hue.

Kizna looked around the storage room for something good to eat. Her eyes spotted some bread and a couple of other items that were sealed in a nonperishable wrap. She reached up and let her fingers close around the items and then pulled them off the shelf. Once secure in her hands, she turned to her accompanists. "Ok, I've got the food. Let's go." The three turned on their heels with Erts in the lead. He pulled the light switch down, turning off the lights and cracked the door open so he could see if anyone was coming.

"The coast is clear," Erts said, beckoning the other two to follow him. The three of them cleared the hallway without anyone stopping them and ran back to the gym, looking back over their shoulders every now and then to see if anyone was pursuing them.

The three teenagers fell to the floor, panting. Once Kizna got her breath back, she opened the bread and a packet of butter and placed in front of them. Ripping off an end of the bread, Kizna proceeded to butter her slice and took a bite out of it. She looked back up and saw the two boys looking at her with a weird look.

"What?" she started with a mouthful. She swallowed then said, "I'm hungry. Don't look at me like that!" She ate the slice in her hand and took another piece off the baguette. "You know you guys can take some, right?" she asked, just to make sure they did not think she was stingy, and promptly ate the next piece.

Once the three of them had filled their stomachs, Zero flopped onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Ahh, that was a great lunch…" he muttered as he closed his eyes for a second.

Before he knew it, Zero was fast asleep on the gym ground. Kizna groaned as she looked over at the sleeping body of Zero and mentioned to Erts, "I think we'd better move him over to the stands before someone finds him lying in the middle of the gym like this."

"Right," Erts replied as the two picked him up. Kizna got his legs while Erts took hold of him under his arms. They moved him over to the stands and then Kizna stood up with a determined look in her eyes as she clapped her hands together.

Erts looked up in curiosity as Kizna enthusiastically said, "How about we practice some more fencing? Zero is asleep after all, and when he's asleep, nothing can wake him up. Believe me, I should know…" with a grin.

"Uh huh… I'm sure you know all about it!" Erts claimed in a teasing fashion.

"Oh, bugger off!" Kizna exclaimed, stamping her foot on the hard gym floor.

"Ok ok, I'm sorry."

"Fine," mumbled Kizna. "Now do you think we can practice some fencing?"

Erts smiled and finally gave in to the pleading girl's desires. "Alright, but wait for about another half an hour and then we shall get down to business." Erts said. "I have to stop by somewhere in the meantime. I shall be back at quarter to four and then we shall begin." Kizna nodded as Erts retreated back to the hallways of GOA.

As soon as Erts disappeared from Kizna's view, she glanced back at the sleeping boy next to her and suddenly had an urge to run her hands through his chocolate brown hair. Giving into temptation, she ran one hand through his messy hair. Zero stirred slightly, but did not wake. Giving a slight smile, Kizna continued to stroke a hand through his hair, soon falling into a trance like state while watching his peaceful face. She heard a faint sound of a door opening but thought nothing off it as she continued to stroke through Zero's messy hair. Kizna heard a soft chuckle behind her and immediately whipped her head around to find the source of the sound. She found Erts standing behind her, watching the two lovebirds with some amusement in his bright blue eyes.

"Oh it's just you."

"Ah! I'm hurt Kizna! I thought you would have been excited to see me again!" Erts said, with a mock look of sadness on his face, his blonde hair covering his eyes as he looked down at the floor. Kizna rolled her eyes and then got to her feet.

"All right then, let's get started," Kizna said with a clap of her hands. Erts nodded as he lifted his head and walked over to the corner of the gym where they stashed the fencing equipment.

"Ok, get you're stuff and lets warm-up."

Nodding, Kizna went inside the small storage room, grabbed a jacket, helmet, sword and glove and came back out of the room. Placing everything on the ground, she picked up the jacket and slipped into it.

"Erts, you think you can help me out for a second?" she asked, seeing as she could not zip the jacket herself since the zip was in the back. Erts came up to her, zipped her jacket up and went back to get his own equipment. Kizna then continued to get the rest of her equipment on. She next took her helmet and placed it over her head to see if it was the right size. The helmet fit perfectly over her head, so then she picked the glove off the floor and slipped her right hand into it. Then, last but not least, she picked the sword off the ground and gave it a little flick to see if it was still in good shape. They had no idea how old the equipment was, but every once in a while they found some piece of equipment that needed repairing. Just to make sure, Kizna tested out her sword and then looked over at Erts to see if he was ready. He was placing the last touches on his uniform, getting his glove on, and then picked his sword up off the wall and then walked over to the middle of the gym.

"Ok then, you ready?" he asked looking over at Kizna through his helmet. She nodded. Walking over to stand right next to him, she got into an en-guard position, her feet at 90-degree angles, her sword up and ready.

"Ok, I want you to practice two advances, a lunge, two fast retreats and then another lunge. Um, how about ten sets of those for warm up?" he asked, also getting into an en-guard position to follow his own drill. Nodding, Kizna started her warm-up.

'_Advance, advance, lunge,'_ she thought to herself as she went through the movements. She paused after she lunged, to check her leg position and then went back to the en- guard position. '_Fast retreat, lunge.'_ Kizna blasted off her back leg and lunged forward, her right arm - with sword- cutting the air in front of her as she extend her arm straight out.

"That looks good Kizna. You're a really fast learner!" Erts exclaimed as he watched Kizna's movements. After ten repetitions were finished, Kizna took her helmet off and held it in her hand.

"Wooh, that was harder than it looks…and I'm sweating like crazy, and since it's already pretty hot in this gym, it makes it worse," she exclaimed, as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with a small handkerchief that she had found in her pocket.

Erts gave a hearty laugh as he took his helmet off as well and then said, "We'll do one more drill and then we'll practice some one- on- one fencing."

"Ok," the pink haired girl replied as she slipped her head back into the mask.

"So now we'll advance one, retreat once, advance twice, retreat twice, increasing it one more time every time we advance and retreat. We'll do this around five times and then take a short break," Erts said. He put his mask on and started the exercise. Kizna watched him for a second or two and then started on it too.

'_Advance, retreat… advance, advance, retreat, retreat…'_ Kizna did this until she was at five advances and five retreats and then stopped. She ripped off the mask and walked over to where she kept their lunch. Grabbing her water bottle off the floor, she took a long sip of water and then placed the water bottle back onto the ground. Taking the kerchief out from her back pocket, she wiped her face of sweat and then looked over at Erts to see what they were going to do next. The blonde haired boy was drinking water himself and felt someone staring him down. Turning around, he saw Kizna looking at him with questioning eyes.

"Ok, well I guess we can get onto the actual fencing," he started, as he put his water bottle back onto the ground.

Placing his helmet back over his head, Erts walked over to the middle of the gym and got into an en- guard position. Kizna followed suit as Erts lifted his left arm into the air. He quickly dropped it and they both advanced forward trying to get the first hit onto their opponent. Kizna saw Erts' sword slash down upon her, trying to hit her shoulder. Retreating quickly, she then lunged, trying to get a hit on the side of Erts' body where he had a slight opening. She felt her sword hit against his body with a slight 'twap' and she went back into her en-guard position, waiting for him to call the point.

"That was good! You finally hit me faster than I could! Excellent!" Erts exclaimed, giving her the first point. "Let's continue."

Back into their en- guard positions, they started again, both trying to get the first hit. This time, Kizna tried to attack first, trying to slash down onto Erts' head. She missed as Erts retreated back and he tried to score a point by lunging immediately afterwards but Kizna blocked his blow and then quickly retreated back. Placing enough distance between them, Kizna then quickly thought of what she could do next. She decided to play with Erts' mind a bit as she advanced and tried to make him think that she was going to attack his head. As soon as his arm lifted to block the blow to his head, Kizna then changed her path of attack and attacked his chest, hitting him straight in the middle.

"Ha! Another point isn't it!" Kizna yelled, jumping in the air, her fist shooting up in excitement. Erts laughed and nodded. "It must be beginner's luck!" Erts muttered.

Getting back into their starting positions once again, Erts lifted and dropped his hand, indicating the start of the fencing match. Advancing quickly, Kizna once again tried to score a point by hitting Erts but to no avail. Erts immediately took this chance to hit Kizna on the head.

Pouting, Kizna said, "Ok, that was your point." Erts just chuckled.

"Don't worry! You're making great progress! You'll be where I am in no time if we keep practicing like this every day." They fenced for a little longer and then decided to call it quits for the day. Taking off their suits and placing their things back into the storage room, they walked back to the stands to see Zero still fast asleep.

"Ok, well now I stink, so I'm going to go head back to my room to catch a quick shower. Um, I guess if you want, you can leave Zero here to sleep, I can come back and pick him up after my shower," the pink haired repairer said, looking at Erts to see what he would say.

"I guess so. I just hope no one will kidnap him!" Erts said giving a short laugh.

Kizna, rolling her eyes said, "I doubt it!" "Alright, in that case, I'm going to take off now," she said, walking over to the entrance of the gym. Taking a quick look back, she glanced at Erts and Zero one more time and then walked out of the gym.

Erts ran after the pink haired girl a few seconds later and yelled out, "Kizna, wait!" He then said, "I can take Zero back to his room if you want. It's close to my room anyways," shrugging.

"Really? Thanks!" Kizna said happily. She gave Erts a quick hug and practically skipped to her room.

She walked over to her room once again and entered a combination on the keypad beside the door. The keypad beeped softly as a small green light was turned on, and the door opened. She saw her other two roommates peacefully sleeping on their respective beds and she grumbled, "Wish I could take naps like you guys." But she knew it was her own fault for asking Erts to fence with her.

Grabbing some clean clothes from her drawer, she walked over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a small click.

When she was completely clean, she stepped out of the shower, dressed quickly and then walked out into the room once again. Her now- awake roommates, along with the repairers next door, who getting ready to go to lower floor for clothes shopping, greeted her with a smile. "Hey Kizna, do you want to come with us to get a couple of things?"

"Where are you guys going?" she asked as she dried off her ears with a spare towel.

"We're going down to the first floor for some clothes shopping," Saki said as she tied her long red hair into two ponytails.

Thinking that she had nothing better to do for the rest of the day, Kizna agreed to tag along with the rest of the hyperactive girls, minus Tsukasa and Ikhny. As the girls headed down, they met Rome along the way and invited her to come with them. They took the stairs, since it was the closest to thing to them that would get them to the first floor, and went down into the shopping arena. Most of their day was spent on buying new clothes and accessories. Every once in a while in G.O.A. they were allowed to wear what they wanted, mainly on the weekends since they had no classes; though not that often. The guys had found them about an hour and a half later, shopping their brains out, and decided to join them since they did not have anything better to do either.

Zero came up behind Kizna and hugged her from behind. Kizna rolling her eyes said, "Not here Zero," as she tried to push him away. He backed off of her a little but kept a close distance to her. He tried to get close to her once again, but she just brushed him off. Annoyed, Zero then decided to join the guys and goofed off for a bit. The guys, which included Yamagi, Roose, Clay and Zero, even ganged up on Zero and made him try on a girl's dress.

"HEY! What are you guys trying to do to me?" Zero complained, looking at the long, dark blue dress in front of him. "You are never going to get it on me," Zero stated, a smug look on his face.

"Wanna bet?" Yamagi said, grinning. "Where's Hiead when you need him?" the purple haired boy asked no one in particular. Hiead had decided to stay cooped up in his room, deciding that shopping was definitely not for him. Yamagi nodded and Roose and Clay surrounded Zero.

"Wha…?" but it was too late.

"Your guard was down," Yamagi said triumphantly. Yamagi slipped the extra large size cloth over Zero's head and pulled it down so now Zero was wearing an over sized blue dress. At that exact moment, Kizna decided to show up and glanced at Zero and continued walking. A second later, she stopped and did a double take.

"Zero?" she asked as she walked up to the laughing boys. "What in the WORLD are you doing in that DRESS?" she asked, her eyes wide and face red. "Oh my god… I can't believe you did this," she said as she buried her face in her hands. Turning around, a smile gracing her face, she walked away as quickly as possible to tell the girls what she had just witnessed.

She later found Zero and the rest of the guys trying on some necklaces and other jewelry. She just lifted her eyebrow and walked away again, this time, Saki laughing merrily behind her. By the end of the day, the guys had gotten yelled at a couple of times and were chased out of the store. Kizna sighed and followed them out of the store after she had made her purchases. She was going to give Zero a piece of her mind she thought as she made her way out of the store. The first few times he had goofed off, she had thought it was funny, but then the guys started disrupting some of the other customers in the store and that was just bad manners. Pulling Zero by the ear down the hall, a few meters away from the rest of the snickering boys, while Zero screamed 'ouch' all the way down, she pushed him against the wall and then started yelling at him in whispered tones. "What did you think you were doing back there Zero? You even started bothering some of the customers in there!" she said, her face red with embarrassment.

"But it wasn't all my fault you know!" Zero whispered back, trying not to place too much attention on them. "And you have to admit it was kind of funny!"

"Fine," Kizna growled out. "I'll admit that it was funny the first few times, but later on it just got annoying. Even for the other customers," she stated as she stomped her foot on the ground. Sighing she finally said, "Just make sure it doesn't happen again, okay? And I don't want to see you in any more dresses and …"

As she droned on and on about what she did and did not want to see him in or how he should or should not act, Zero tuned her voice out and just stared at her face. '_She looks cute when she's angry,_' he thought as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss, while she was in the middle of her rant.

"Wha…" was all she got out when Zero attacked her lips with his. As he pushed further trying to get a reaction out of her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Getting lost in his strong arms, Kizna closed her eyes and relished the kiss, all thoughts of him goofing off thrown out the window.

Once they pulled back, he whispered, "Fine, I promise it won't happen again," well aware that Kizna was probably wanting an answer to her last question. Kizna got a confused look on her face, but it quickly passed as she remembered what he was talking about. She just smiled, nodded, and walked back towards the rest of the girls and headed up the stairs back to her room. Luckily they weren't caught by anyone roaming the hallways and Zero had to remind himself to be more careful next time.

By the time the girls came up to their various rooms and put their newfound things away, it was close to dinnertime.

"Let's head down to the mess hall," said Tsukasa. The rest of them nodded and headed down to get some dinner. As the girls settled down at a table with their trays full of food, Kizna frowned and suddenly asked, "Do you know where the mess hall gets all this food?" The rest of the girls looked around and shrugged.

Then Rome spoke up. "I guess they get it from near by colonies. That would be the only reason that makes sense. Let's ask Clay," she then said as Clay walked up to the table with his own tray of food.

"Hey Clay, Kizna was asking, and we were all wondering as well, where does G.O.A. get all the food? I mean, they can't just keep making food like this out of thin air," Saki said laughing.

"You're right indeed. They can't make food out of thin air," he started, as he took a seat on the other side of the table, across from the line of girls. The rest of the boys were following his lead and followed him to the mess hall, all the way up to the table and sat down when they came to their respective seats. "Well, if my sources are correct, we get food from any near by colony that we encounter. Pretty much any colony in this system knows about G.O.A. and have offered to help out the candidates living on the ship since we are the future," he said, puffing out his chest.

Yamagi then took that opening and smacked Clay on the back, in a friendly way. "Don't go and get a big head Clay," he muttered with a mouth full of food. Clay just rolled his eyes, ignoring Yamagi, and pushed up his glasses.

"Like I was saying, they get food from neighboring colonies as we go around the galaxy, watching out for victim who are trying to attack the last available planet for humans to live on, Zion. Once we find a permanent way to get rid of the Victim, then people can start settling down on Zion and make it their home just like the planet Earth was…" Clay said, going into his lecture mode. His eyes glazed over as he thought back to how it must have been to live on earth and decided to go back onto a computer and research more about the earth. Saki, fork in hand, waved her arm in front of Clay's face, trying to get him out of his revive.

"Hey Clay! Snap out of it!" she barked as Clay slightly jumped at her voice.

"Sorry," he uttered sheepishly. Then he continued to dig into his food, while the rest of the gang pondered over what Clay had just revealed to them.

Yawning, Zero stood up after his meal and rubbed his eyes. "For some reason, I'm still sleepy," he said. Kizna just raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

"Boys."

"We have classes tomorrow don't we?" Ikhny asked.

"Yeah we do. So we'd better get to bed soon too," Clay said as he looked at his watch. "It's almost 8:30," he reported. After their dinner, they spent some time just chatting away, making idle talk in the mess hall for about half an hour. They then decided as a group to take a small walk around G.O.A., to walk off their dinner. By the time everyone got back to their respective rooms, it was around 9:00 and Zero headed straight to bed.

"Good night Kizna," he said as he gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Aww!" he heard the girls say behind him. He turned and glared at them as Kizna laughed at his reaction.

"Just go to bed Zero," she said as she pushed him in the direction of his room. Nodding, Hiead, Clay and Zero headed over to their room and closed the door behind them.

All was peaceful, but of course, everything will seem peaceful before a storm hits. Zero found himself getting ready for bed, a yawn taking over him every once in a while. He had been goofing off all afternoon and Kizna scolded him for that later that evening, but of course he made her forgive him and forget all about his antics by giving her a long, passionate kiss that took her breath away. He grinned at that thought. '_I wish I knew that a long time ago, that way I wouldn't have gotten punched or kicked so many times before!'_ Zero slipped out of his uniform and wore a pajama pant over his boxers. He decided it was too hot in the room, therefore not bothering to wear a shirt. Before he climbed into bed, he muttered a 'goodnight' to Hiead and Clay and then wrapped the blanket over himself. Thoughts flowed freely in his head as the day's events fluttered by. Past battles, future goals, anything and everything went in and out of his head as he zoomed away into the inky darkness that he called sleep.

Zero found himself staring at Kizna, their noses almost touching. "We did it Kizna!" he found himself yelling. Kizna just smiled in response and gave him a light hug. All of sudden, G.O.A.'s alarms went off indicating that the Victim were attacking. Zero's eyes widened as he looked at Kizna. She nodded as they both rushed towards the pro- ing room. Kizna gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she left to go to the control room. Zero ran into the pro- ing room and jumped into his pro-ing, watching at the hatch closed down upon him, locking him into the pro- ing. Firing off, the brown haired boy soon found himself floating in space along with his friends.

"Zero!" the brown haired boy heard, as the voice reverberated through his pro-ing. "Zero, it's Erts. Follow me!" he said as the goddess flew past him, almost blowing him away. Zero, his mind slowly catching up to him, took control of the jets on the back of the pro-ing and blasted away, following right behind Erts. He took a quick glance around and was happy to see his friends following him.

"Hey lover boy!" Hiead called out. Zero turned around and looked at Hiead.

"What?" he asked, his tone clipped and annoyed.

"You ready? I have a little challenge for you," Hiead started to say. "The person to kill the most victim will get to be a slave to the other for a whole week."

"That's it? A whole week?" Zero asked, slightly suspicious that there may be more to this deal than Hiead was letting on.

Hiead just raised his eyebrows. "Fine, a month. How's that?"

Zero smirked and said, "You're going to regret that!" as he blasted away into the battle ahead, trying to kill any Victim that was in reaching distance.

"Zero!" he heard Kizna scream.

"What? What is it?" he asked, slightly concerned at the tone she had used to call him. He pulled his sword out of an unsuspecting Victim and grinned in triumph.

"Behind you!"

Zero turned around as quickly as possible but it wasn't quick enough. The victim lifted its tail and swiped down at Zero, slashing his chest. Zero screamed in pain, but as soon as the pain had come, it vanished. "Thanks," he panted out.

Turning, he saw a pro-ing getting slashed in half by a cunning Victim and he bowed his head for a second to pay respect to his dead comrade. Then he continued fighting on.

The battle raged on for quite some time. "Zero, you have to slow down. If you continue like this, you're going to use up all you reserve energy and you can die if you are stuck out there without any energy to do anything!" Kizna exclaimed as the face of Zero popped up onto her screen. She had been monitoring his heartbeat and how much effort he was putting, and at the rate he was going, he wasn't going to last very long.

"But I can't loose to Hiead!" he growled as he took out his gun and fired at another couple of Victim. Realizing that it was the last of his shots, he threw away his gun and took out his sword once again and fired off.

"Zero!" Kizna screamed helplessly. All of a sudden, Zero heard a loud crash behind him and as he turned, he caught sight of a type of Victim he had yet to encounter.

'_This must be the mother of them all,' _he thought as he waited to see what it would do. To his horror, it headed straight to G.O.A. Zero raced towards the space station, trying to beat the Victim there, but unfortunately he was not fast enough. He tried calling Hiead or Erts, anyone for that matter, but he was too low in energy and the systems inside the pro –ing were failing him.

"No…." Zero muttered as he watched the Victim attack, head first, the side of G.O.A. where the control room was located. "Kizna!" Zero screamed as he once again, powered up his jets and raced towards the station. He found himself slowing down a couple seconds later and to his horror, he discovered that his jets were now failing. "DAMN IT!" the blue-eyed boy screamed as he banged his fists into the control panel of the pro-ing.

All of a sudden, his pro-ing shut down for some unknown reason, and now he was a sitting duck in middle of space. He could only watch as the new type of Victim continued to crash into the side of G.O.A. where his beloved was located and none of the goddesses came to their rescue. He heard a scream come from far away, as it was very faint, and realized it was the repairers in the control room screaming for their lives. Zero tried once again to start his pro- ing, but to no avail.

"KIZNA!" he screamed out, as the blue-eyed boy started to break down as he watched G.O.A. crumble right under his nose.

As he fell into the darkness, Zero felt a soft hand touch his shoulder. '_Am I dead?'_ Zero thought for a moment. That thought soon passed as another hand started to shake his body violently. Zero let out a howl of frustration and punched the person who was bothering him. Zero tightly closed his eyes to prevent any tears to flow out. Feeling something cold touch his face, he opened his eyes immediately to see what it was. He found himself staring into someone's hand.

Confused, Zero looked around and found himself lying in bed with an anxious Hiead and concerned Clay watching over him. "What?" he asked.

"You were screaming like there was no tomorrow," Hiead stated matter- of – factly.

"Huh?" Zero asked, but as soon as he uttered those words, his dream came back to him in a rush, the goddesses, and the victim, the screaming… "Oh god… Kizna!" Zero tried to scramble out of bed as fast as he could, but Hiead's strong hands clamped down on his shoulders and prevented him from moving.

"What are you doing? Get off me!" Zero screamed.

"Calm down," Hiead said, his red eyes staring deep into Zero's blue ones. "It was just a dream."

Zero blinked and finally took in his surroundings. He finally realized that his blanket was drenched in sweat, his chest and hands were covered with a light sheet of sweat and his pants were sticking to his legs. "What happened?" he finally asked, calming down.

Sighing, Clay took this time to explain to Zero their version of the story. "Well, we heard you say good night, and then you got into bed. Both of us followed your example and tried to get some sleep, but five minutes later, you started screaming and muttering in you're sleep. We thought it was just some kiddy nightmare like a ghost chasing after you or something and decide to ignore it. After all, you did stop screaming a couple seconds later. But soon, like, I'd say, ten minutes later, you started screaming for Kizna, Hiead, actually, pretty much anyone that we know. You even screamed for Azuma! Then you started yelling at the top of your lungs and you were trashing about and it was then that Hiead and I decided to hold you down and make sure you calmed down before you hurt yourself. You were screaming Kizna's name like there was no tomorrow and then you started to sob…. That must have been some nightmare…" Clay concluded with a sad smile on his face. "Are you ok now?"

Zero nodded numbly. "It sure felt real," he muttered. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now though."

Hiead and Clay nodded, understanding that Zero needed his space. Zero got up and decided to take a walk around G.O.A. to clear his mind before returning back to bed. He pressed the button on the sidewall to open the door and immediately found himself face to face with his pink haired repairer.

"Zero…" she uttered, slightly shocked. Zero, eyes wide, grabbed her shoulders and hugged her, bringing her as close to him as possible.

"Zero?" Kizna asked questioningly. "I heard someone screaming from over here and was worried that it might be you or something. Are… Are you alright?" The pink haired girl touched his cheek with her left hand, her thumb brushing over his cheekbone in a slow manner. "You okay?" she asked once again, looking straight into his baby blue eyes for an answer. She knew it was his screaming that she heard; she could make it out from anywhere. When he did not reply, she looked over her boyfriend's shoulder and looked questioningly at Hiead and Clay.

"He's ok," Clay uttered reassuringly. Kizna nodded.

Reaching down, she took Zero's hand into hers and slowly pulled him out of the room. '_That must have been some nightmare to shake him up like this,'_ Kizna thought as she sadly looked over at him. Zero was silently walking besides her, staring at the floor. "Come on," she said as she pulled him down the hall. "I'll bring him back in a little while," Kizna hollered back to his roommates.

Nodding, Hiead closed the room door once again. "I think she'll be the only one to help him get through that. I think this is the first time I've seen him so shaken up," Hiead said out loud. He was a little shaken up himself at seeing Zero so sullen and quiet.

Meanwhile, Kizna took Zero and led him towards the recreation room. Once inside, she took a seat beside him as he plopped himself next to the big oak tree that was towards the center of the room.

"Zero," she said softly as she placed a soft hand on his shoulder. Eyes wide, he turned around and stared at her.

Turning back around to stare out the window once again, he softly muttered, "it was horrible Kizna… I was so scared when I lost you…" Kizna's eyes widened slightly as she realized what had Zero so shaken up. "I called for help, but…" Kizna watched as the boy in front of her placed his head in his hands. She rubbed his back, trying to ease the pain. Then, all of a sudden, shocking himself, as well as her, Zero pulled her into a fierce hug and then slowly said, "no one came… but I'll never let that happen again." Backing away from her slightly, he repeated his promise once again. "You hear me? I'm never going to let you go!" he whispered fiercely as he slammed his lips onto hers in a fiery kiss, full of passion and wanting.

Kizna's eyes that were fully open with shock, slowly closed as she savored the kiss. She felt his tongue prodding against her lower lip as she slowly opened her mouth to let him in. He pulled away a minute later, gasping for breath. He then moved in and started to attack her open neck. His lips finally found her pressure point as he let his tongue flicker out and lick the soft skin there. The brown haired boy felt Kizna shiver under his lips and grinned. Teasing her for another minute or so, he went back to her lips and continued kissing her. He felt her place her hands on his chest and soon felt himself falling backwards onto the soft green grass. Wrapping his hands around the waist of the girl in front of him, he fell in such a way so that she would not get hurt. He went down with a soft 'oof,' all thoughts of his nightmare gone for the night as he cuddled next to the pink haired girl. As they continued to kiss and caress each other into the night, the darkness slowly took over them as they fell into a peaceful slumber side by side.

By the time the sun came up and shone through the glass of the recreation room, Kizna had one arm splayed over Zero's chest and one of her legs between his in a very compromising position. Should she have moved the slightest bit, Zero would have woken up in one of the seven hells. Zero on the other hand had spread out over the ground, laying flat on his back. One of his arms was wrapped protectively around Kizna while the other arm was somewhere out there.

Zero yawned and cracked his eyes open slightly. A slight pressure between his legs woke him up, but he had the nicest sleep that he had in a couple of months. He moved down a little, preparing to get up, when he felt the pressure between his legs increase. Frowning, he looked down to see his legs wrapped around a thin, slender leg. As he followed the leg up, he found his girlfriend wrapped around him, her soft, pink hair tickling his neck as she moved slightly. He winced slightly as she moved her leg and her knee pressed up against him. He moved backwards slightly, as much as his body would allow since his arm was stuck under her body, and slowly removed her leg, trying not to wake her up. Moaning slightly, Kizna turned over to lay on her other side, taking Zero's arm with her.

"Ah!" he screamed out softly as he was pulled along with her. He now found himself with his face right beside her neck; both of his arms wrapped around the girl's waist, his body spooned in alongside hers.

As it was too tempting to pass up, Zero lightly blew on her neck and waited for her reaction. He was pleasantly surprised to find her mutter something incorrigible and then squirm a little. Grinning, he tried that again and she repeated her actions. Daring to do it again, he blew on her neck again, this time not anticipating her reaction, got hit in the head as her hand took flight as she tried to brush off whatever was blowing on her neck. Deciding to stop, he found a new way to wake her up.

"Kizna," he whispered in a husky tone into her cat like ear. Her ears twitched in response and she turned towards him slightly, but did not show any indication of waking up. He tried again. "Kizna…" he uttered, in a slightly whiny tone this time. She only twitched her ears, brushing up against his nose, and continued to sleep. He watched her face for another minute or so and saw her lips forming a slight pout. Smiling, he removed his free arm from her waist and traced her light pink lips. They were as soft and as tantalizing as ever as he leaned down and kissed the side of her mouth. Not satisfying his desires, he leaned down a little further, catching her lips in a sweet kiss. He let his tongue roam out of his mouth to lick hers. He could still taste some remnants of the lip balm she had put on the day before.

He heard his girlfriend moan slightly and he slowly opened his eyes again. He found himself getting lost, once again, in her brownish red eyes. Pulling back slightly, he found Kizna's slightly confused gaze on him.

"What?" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He supported his upper body on his elbow. "It was too tempting!" he confessed, rolling off of her. Realizing that his arm was under her, Kizna lifted her body slightly, allowing him to remove his hand. Kizna rolled over to face him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"You know, you're really cute when you want to be," she said giggling.

"Har har…" he replied giving her a playful glare. He then suddenly became quiet as the previous night's events rolled through his head.

"You ok?" Kizna asked once again, when she saw his face go behind a mask once again.

Swallowing, he squeezed Kizna's arm in a reassuring manner and then replied, "Yea, I think I will be. Don't worry; I won't let it affect me. Plus, I don't think I'll have another nightmare again. Don't worry," he repeated, not quite sure if it was for himself or for the pink haired girl in front of him.

Hugging him lightly, Kizna got up off the floor and started walking towards the exit. Running up behind her, Zero grabbed her from behind and wrapped his arms around her once again and whispered a 'thanks' in her ear before letting her go out the door. She smiled but did not turn around as she continued to walk to her room. Zero left a minute after her, checking if the halls were clear. He remembered Clay's warning of the 'people above' finding out about them. Apparently repairer and candidate could not have any other relationship other than platonic. They thought it would get in the way and could be detrimental to the candidates if the repairer and the candidate had… not so friendly feelings between them. Zero sighed and walked back to his room when he saw no one was in the halls.

'_What time is it anyways?'_ he thought to himself. He left his watch in his room so he had no clue. He heard faint footsteps behind him, meaning that the person was not so close to him, but was going to approach him pretty soon. Panicking because he did not want to be asked thousands of questions, Zero started to run down the halls, heading straight to his room. He made it in a couple minutes and typed in a couple numbers into the keypad next to the door. Slamming a finger into the enter button, the door slid open and he raced in, pressing another button to close the door.

Zero leaned on the doorframe for a minute, panting softly. He looked around the darkened room at his two sleeping roommates and felt a yawn taking over him. Sighing, he thought to himself, '_I guess I need more sleep than I thought I did… plus I didn't have such a good night.'_ He walked over to his bed and glanced at the indigo clock on his nightstand. It read 5:30 AM. Deciding that it was too early and that he would not have anything to do until 8, he slipped under the covers and tried to get some sleep before classes started that day.

When he heard his alarm clock go off, he pulled his arm out from underneath the blanket and slammed down onto the tiny clock. Rolling over onto his side, he heard his other two roommates get out of bed. '_Lucky them, they got enough sleep last night,'_ Zero thought with a hint of annoyance. Sighing, he cracked an eye open and watched as Hiead stripped down to his boxers, grab his clothes for the day and walked over to the shower. '_I did not need to see that,'_ Zero thought, a grimace upon his soft features. As soon as Hiead came out, Clay went in after him. There was enough rustling going on in the room that Zero finally realized that he would not get anymore sleep that morning. Sitting up in bed, he stared groggily at Hiead and watched him get dressed.

"Are you so taken up with me that you can't peel your eyes away from my body?" Hiead asked, smirking. "I'm flattered, but it's kind of creeping me out."

Zero glared in response and said, "I just got up… give me a break!" He then turned away from Hiead and stared out the window. All he could see was pitch-black darkness, a few stars sprinkled here and there over the darkened sky. Hiead just laughed in response.

"Let's get going," Clay said as he re-entered the room, a towel wrapped around his waist and another one hanging off his shoulders. "Zero, you'd better take a shower quickly; classes start in about fifteen minutes," Clay reminded the brown haired boy as he glanced at his clock.

"Oh shit!" Zero exclaimed, bounding out of bed. Grabbing his uniform off the ground, he pulled out a clean pair of boxers from one of the drawers in his chest and ran towards the bathroom door. Slamming the door behind him, he stripped down and clambered into the shower stall as fast as he could. Luckily the water was still warm since Clay had just come out, so Zero did not have to wait for the water to heat up. Vigorously rubbing himself free of sweat and dirt from yesterday, the dream from last night slowly replayed in his head.

'_It's not true,'_ he kept reminding himself. '_Calm down!'_ Washing all the soap off his body, he rinsed his hair quickly and then turned the water off. Getting out of the shower quickly, he dried off his body, slipped into the new pair of boxers he had brought with him, and then wrapped the towel around his waist. Grabbing the rest of his clothes that had fallen onto the ground in his rush to take a shower, he walked out of the bathroom and dumped them into the laundry shoot located in a corner of the room, on the wall. He then ran back to his bed and slipped into his uniform and finally turned to face Hiead and Clay.

"Ok, let's go! We have five minutes left!" he yelled as he dashed to the door. He pushed on the button that opens the door and as soon as the door opened he ran out, jogging in place while waiting for the other two to come out the door. "Hurry up you two!" Zero ordered.

"And he was the slow one ten minutes ago," mumbled Clay. Hiead just shook his head and followed the other two out the door.

"I'll race you two to the classroom," Zero challenged as he took off.

"How can it be fair if he gets a head start?" Clay whined, but nevertheless, went running after Zero and Hiead when he saw that Hiead had deserted him. They passed Roose and Yamagi on the way down and Clay stopped to talk to him. Meanwhile, Hiead did not want to loose to the chocolate haired boy so he pushed himself to catch up to his rival.

"Got ya," Hiead panted out as he caught up with Zero, easily running side by side with him. But of course there was a slight difference as Hiead was panting very slightly and Zero's breathing was completely normal. Hiead noticed this and pushed it to the back of his mind to delve on later.

As the two boys ran into the classroom, Kizna shot Zero a worried look, but he just shrugged it off with a smile and walked up to her. "Hey," he whispered as he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, making sure no one caught them in the act.

Smiling slightly, she faced towards the front of the classroom when she heard Azuma walk in. "Take your seats people," he barked as he went to the computer in the corner. Pressing a small button on the keyboard, a big monitor came down in front of the classroom for the students to look at. Typing a few quick commands into the computer, a big image of the various victim that were found came up on the screen.

Zero, quickly scanning the monitor, sighed quietly as there was no trace of the victim he saw in his dream. "Now, here are the different types of victim. By the end of the week, each and every one of you should know the various victim, how they look when spotted from far away and what are their weaknesses and how you can manipulate them." Azuma then continued on to explain each of the different types of victim discovered so far and the kinds of attacks that the goddesses found advantageous over the various types of victim. By the time Azuma had finished talking about the victim, half the class was over. He closed that screen and brought up a new one. This new screen contained pictures of the five goddesses and their pilots. "Ok, so we are going to continue analyzing each of the goddesses and their pilots, faults and strengths, both. Now, can anyone tell me what are some faults that were found with Ernn Laties?" Azuma questioned. Clay raised his hand tentatively, and then quickly put his hand down again.

Saki leaned over and questioned that action. "Well, I'm not quite sure with the Ernn Laties. And plus I'm not quiet sure what kinds of problems he wants us to describe, mechanical problems, goddess interaction problems, pilot problems?" Clay went on rambling. He was mainly nervous of being wrong and getting yelled at by Azuma.

"No one? Well then, let me explain," Azuma yelled out. He went through the goddesses again, hitting on the major points briefly. "I expect you all to know this information by next class. I was lenient on you guys today," he mentioned, fixing each one of them with a glare. He closed the program with the goddess information on it and then shut down the computer. "Class dismissed." Azuma pulled out a cigarette out of his back pocket and stuck it in his mouth, and then continued to walk out of the classroom, mumbling something about incompetent students under his breath.

The rest of the class filed out of the room and decided to go their separate ways. Clay said he wanted to go visit the computer lab and library first thing before he did anything else. Hiead decided to go with him, but as the two left, Hiead glanced back quickly at Ikhny to see if she was ok. Apparently she had decided to hang out with Tsukasa, both of them heading back to their rooms to get some quiet time to themselves, and maybe pick up a good book to read along the way.

Wreka, Saki and Yamagi decided that it would be fun to spy on people around G.O.A. and get some real gossip that was going around on the ship. Roose was unfortunately dragged along with them. That left Zero and Kizna to do their bidding. They decided to…

"Hey, do you want to head down and see the goddesses?" Zero asked with a pleading looking his eyes.

Giving in, Kizna finally said, "Ok, we'll go." But then she remembered that the G.I.S. was off limits to any of the candidates. Only official members of the staff and the goddess pilots were allowed in.

"We'll just take a quick peek," Zero said grinning. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and grabbed her hand, pulling her along various corridors until they got to the staircase. They took the stairs down, of course there was an entrance to where the goddesses were on the second floor, but they decided that if they wanted to sneak in, the first floor entrance was better.

After about ten minutes, Zero and Kizna found themselves running back down the first floor hallways, up the stairs and down into an empty classroom because someone saw them sneaking down around the G.I.S. base. Panting hard, and out of breath, both teenagers took two seats and waited for their breathing to catch up to them.

"Whew… that was fun!" Zero exclaimed, laughing. Kizna joined in too.

"Yea, but luckily we weren't caught by them… They just saw us. And if I remember correctly, that must have been Gareas and Leena," Kizna said, her hand under her chin, elbow resting upon the desk table.

Zero's eyes widened and he muttered something unnecessary under his breath as he remembered it was Gareas' Ingrid that he fell into when he went to look at the goddesses for the very first time.

"What?" Kizna asked, looking slightly confused.

"It was Gareas' goddess that I fell into and Leena and he had to fish me out of there… but I fell you, it was an awesome feeling to be inside a goddess…" Zero said as he went back into his memories. Kizna smiled, happy for him.

"He controls the Eeva Leena right? The most powerful offense goddess," Kizna said, as she tried to remember what else Azuma taught them on the goddesses. Nodding just to please Kizna, Zero scooted his desk a little closer to Kizna and took in the scent of her hair.

"It smells nice," he muttered under his breath, but of course Kizna's cat- like ears picked that comment up.

"What does?" she asked.

"Your hair," he replied as his hand caressed her ear. Kizna felt her eyes close as she relished his touch. She leaned into his touch and soon felt him place kisses on her face and neck.

"Zero…" she mumbled quietly. They continued torturing each other like this until a bell sounded, alerting them that a class would come in. Sighing, both the teenagers got up and walked out of the classroom, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

As the day went on, the two teens found various different places to hide or just to hang out. They met up with the rest of the gang for dinner and then went to bed after their meals.

Zero was kind of scared to sleep that night, scared that he might have another dream like the one he had the previous night. But he was lucky not to have any such dreams. But unfortunately, he was not so lucky the next night.

Zero thrashed and rolled in his sleep two days after his last disturbed sleep, sweat dripping off his brow. "Ughhh," he moaned out.

He looked over at Kizna, his eyes filled with love and passion. He heard footsteps approaching. Eyes wide, he grabbed Kizna's hand and dragged her down another hall. "Zero, what's going on?" she asked him, demanding that he stop.

"Azuma is following us. That's what's going on," he whispered forcefully. It finally dawned on Kizna why he was running in the other direction. Nodding, she grabbed his hand again, and gave it a small squeeze.

"Listen, I know a place where we can hide. I've never been there before, but I've heard rumors that it's the best place on this ship… only if I could remember exactly where it was…" Kizna mumbled, holding her chin with the palm of her hand.

"Let's get out of here," Zero promptly said, dragging her towards a near by room.

"Oh! I remember where it is!" Kizna shouted out as she pulled Zero in another direction.

"Kizna!" Zero whined as he was pulled along into a new hall that he had never seen.

"Hum,… where can it be?" Kizna questioned, to no one in particular. "What's this?" she asked, stopping at a funny looking door. It looked like their room doors, the ones that slid open with a push of a button. Seeing a keypad on the side of this new door, she pushed a small red button located at the bottom of the keypad and the monstrous double doors opened with a loud creaking noise. The double doors groaned and clicked loudly as it opened up, sliding into the walls connected to it.

Frowning, Kizna bent forward, sniffing the air inside the new room they found. "It smells ok," Kizna said tentatively. Zero froze, looking at the contraption in front of him.

"Zero? What's wrong?" Kizna asked, looking at the man standing next to her. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare straight at the wall, his mouth slightly open, and his hands in the shape of a fist. "Are you ok?" the repairer asked as she gently shook his shoulder.

Zero was brought out of his revive and turned to Kizna. He shook his head and smiled as Kizna said "come on!" and dragged him into the small room they found.

Kizna looked around, eyes wide, and ears up, taking in everything in sight. "Hey look, more buttons!" Kizna said. Then she remembered something. "If I remember correctly, the rumor that I heard was about a room located on the second floor." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a button marked with the number "2" and pushed it. As soon as she did, the room came to life, humming and shaking. Kizna, scared at the noise since any sound became amplified through her cat like ears, she jumped and grabbed Zero and a sort of strangled hug.

"Kizna… you're choking me," Zero gasped out. Releasing her hold slightly, she felt the 'room' moving upward.

"Zero, where are we going?" she asked shakily.

"I'm not sure, but I feel like I've been in this kind of situation before," he muttered, deep in thought. The room came to an abrupt stop and both Kizna and Zero were thrown back. The doors of the room once again slid open, groaning and creaking until it stopped moving. Cautiously stepping out of the 'room' they had found, Zero and Kizna gripped their hands together, tightly, almost at the point of stopping the flow of blood into their hands.

As they walked down the hall, they saw rooms on either side of the hall, even when they turned onto the next hallway, there were more rooms to greet them. Taking their time, they slowly made their way deeper and deeper into the maze. They finally stopped when they saw a door, ancient carvings covering the door from top to bottom, yet it had the look of a modern day door because it had a keypad lock on the side of the door.

"Amazing," Kizna said with a gasp as she took in the sight of the door. As Zero stared at the door, he felt some sort of message enter his brain as he kept his eyes trailed on the door. His hand went automatically to the keypad on the sidewall and typed in the code to open the door. He had no clue how it came to him, but all he knew was that somehow he had gotten this knowledge and should not let it go to waste. "7-7-5-4-2-6-0" he muttered under his breath as he typed in the access code. His fingers then trailed down the pad and pressed the 'Enter' button. As soon as his finger put a little pressure on that key, the light at the top of the keypad went green and with a loud grinding noise, the doors slowly began to open.

A little bit of dust and smoke could be seen entering the hallway where Kizna and Zero stood. They just assumed that the door had not been opened for a while. When the doors were completely open, the couple slowly stepped inside and looked around.

"What's so great about this?" Zero asked with his hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. "It has such great doors, yet this whole room is empty… totally empty."

"You're right. Hum…" Kizna knew something was not right here. Zero could see it on her face.

"What? What is it?" he asked, a curious look taking over his face.

"Well, you made a great point. Why would there be such a special looking door on the _second_ floor, where most of the staff lives- I assume- yet the room is empty? It makes no sense," she said, looking around for any clues that would give her an idea of what this place was about.

As the pink haired girl looked around for a second time, she took a couple of steps forward to get a clear view of the wall in front of her. "Zero, look." Kizna pointed to the wall in front of her with one of her gloved hands. As the two made their way over to the opposite wall, the door behind them closed with a resounding 'bang.' Kizna jumped slightly but kept walking towards the wall. When they got there, they saw a couple of sheets of paper stuck onto the wall, encased in a protective plastic covering and the covering was mounted onto the wall.

"Zero, what does it say? Can you read it?" Kizna asked, looking slightly confused by the new writing that she had never encountered before.

"I feel like I've encountered it before, like I know what it says. And plus, I remember Clay showing me clips of these types of writing before," Zero mumbled under his breath as he continued to examine the writing in front of him. "If I'm right, I think the first one says ' 1: Mansion,' the second one says '2: Amusement Park,' the third one, '3: Coral Reefs.' What are they?" Zero asked, turning to his cat-eared friend. Kizna shrugged in reply.

All of a sudden, a blaring noise filtered through the big double doors that they had entered before. Since the room was so big and magnanimous, the sound echoed and bounced off the walls making the sound all the more louder. Kizna's cat like ears lay flat on the top of her head, her hands on top of them. Zero covered his own ears with his hands and crouched down onto the floor, and then saw Kizna doing the same thing.

"What's going on?" Zero screamed over the loud noises.

"I'm thinking it's a Victim attack!" Kizna yelled back. When Zero got wind of what she said, his eyes widened and he rushed towards the door, pressing the button next to the door to get it to open up once again. He started banging on the door once he realized the button stopped working.

"OPEN UP! SOMEONE HELP US!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. There was a small window on one of the other walls and he saw the goddesses fly by. "DAMN IT! Open up!" Zero screeched as he kicked the door with his foot. He immediately regretted doing that as he gripped his foot with his hands trying to make the throbbing stop.

A loud scream took his attention away from the pain and onto the person screaming. He turned around and saw that the glass over on the other window had started to crack because a victim had crashed into it. He ran over to Kizna as soon as another Victim rammed into the side of G.O.A., right where the window happened to be. Kizna was lucky enough not to get his by any of the glass pieces that flew into the room, but Zero was not as lucky as his girlfriend. A medium sized glass shard was embedded into his calf as he ran past the window to get to Kizna. Unfortunately, that brought the brown haired boy down to the ground immediately and Kizna started running towards him when she saw him clutching his leg in pain.

"Kizna! Stay away!" Zero yelled as he glanced towards the window again, this time seeing another victim approaching. "Kizna! NO!" he hollered out, but to no avail. She was about two feet away when the victim decided to join together and attack G.O.A., sending Kizna flying across towards the other wall. She was clearly distraught by this time and was not thinking straight, therefore ending up hitting the opposite wall with a sickening thud. Zero watched painfully as his girlfriend slowly slid down the wall, her arms and legs in awkward and very uncomfortable positions. His eyes widened, realizing what this could mean. "No,.. it can't be…" he whispered to himself as he forced himself to get off the ground and limped slowly towards her unmoving body. He swallowed before going up to her and lifting her head. He saw a big trail of blood on the side of her head, her skull cracked slightly. Her shoulder was dislocated and ankles twisted.

Zero felt the big ship rocked once more as the victim attacked once again. Kizna was thrown back onto the wall, yet there was no cry of pain from her. "Kizna?" Zero asked as he cradled her body in his arms. "KIZNA…!" Zero yelled into the starry skies, a look of murder taking over his eyes as he glanced at the Victim that was waiting for him outside the window.

A panting Zero sat up in bed screaming "KIZNA!" at the top of his lungs. Taking slow, deep breaths, he looked around the darkened room. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around one more time. '_It was a dream?'_ he asked, blinking a few times. Apparently he had woken up his other two roommates- Hiead and Clay- seeing as they were sitting up in bed too.

"Zero, if you're going to have nightmares, can you keep the screaming down a bit?" Hiead asked with a tint of sarcasm noted in his voice.

Zero just kept quiet, completely shocked at his dream. "Why am I dreaming of such things?" he asked the darkness. "It felt so real…"

Clay walked over to Zero's bed and patted his back. "Don't let it get to you Zero. I'm sure you are more worried about the Victim hurting Kizna, that's what your subconscious is trying to warn you about," Clay said as he squinted into the darkness, his glasses still on the night stand.

"You must be right," Zero said, trying to give himself an excuse about his nightmares. He decided to go back to sleep, trying to forget about his unsettling dream.

The next day, after classes, Kizna walked down the halls looking for Zero. Zero had wandered off after class with Hiead, arguing heatedly about something. As she turned the corner, she heard two girls walking down the hall gossiping about something.

"Hey, did you hear about what's on the third floor?" the first girl asked.

"No, what about it? All I know is that the teachers and staffs' rooms are up there. Maybe a few meeting rooms, but besides that, I don't think there is anything else up there," the second girl replied.

"Well, I heard they have this really special room on the third floor, it's like the second floor rec. room but this is twice as large and apparently it has this special feel to it… I didn't hear much about it, but it sounds very mysterious… I'd like to check it out sometime," the first girl said, a glazed over look in her eyes.

"Hum… That does sound interesting," Kizna thought as she continued to locate Zero. "Zero!" she yelled out as she finally found him sitting with Hiead in the mess hall.

"I've finally found you!" she exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Why?"

"Well, I've just heard this rumor about a room on the third floor… do you want to check it out?" she asked, not really having a particular reason to look for him until now.

"Uh, sure I guess, since I have nothing better to do," he replied. "Hiead, do you want to come along?"

"Uh, no thanks… I'll leave you love birds alone then. I have something else I need to take care off," he said as he excused himself.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Zero said. "Lead the way!"

"Ok. Well, from what I've heard, the room is on the third floor, so we can go take the stairs up…" Kizna said, walking over to a secluded part of G.O.A. The nearest stairs from the mess hall were located there, and not many people took these stairs. On the way to the stairwell, she noticed a door that she had never seen before.

"What's this?" she asked, stopping at a funny looking door. It looked like their room doors, the ones that slid open with a push of a button. Seeing a keypad on the side of this new door, she pushed a small red button located at the bottom of the keypad and the monstrous double doors opened with a loud creaking noise. The double doors groaned and clicked loudly as it opened up, sliding into the walls connected to it.

Frowning, Kizna bent forward, sniffing the air inside the new room they found. "It smells ok," Kizna said tentatively. Zero froze, looking at the contraption in front of him.

"Zero? What's wrong?" Kizna asked, looking at the man standing next to her. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare straight at the wall, his mouth slightly open, and his hands in the shape of a fist. "Are you ok?" the repairer asked as she gently shook his shoulder.

Zero was brought out of his revive and turned to Kizna. He shook his head and smiled as Kizna said "come on!" and dragged him into the small room they found.

Kizna looked around, eyes wide, and ears up, taking in everything in sight. "Hey look, more buttons!" Kizna said. Then she remembered something. "If I remember correctly, the rumor that I heard was about a room located on the second floor." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a button marked with the number "2" and pushed it. As soon as she did, the room came to life, humming and shaking. Kizna, scared at the noise since any sound became amplified through her cat like ears, she jumped and grabbed Zero and a sort of strangled hug.

"Kizna… you're choking me," Zero gasped out. Releasing her hold slightly, she felt the 'room' moving upward.

"Zero, where are we going?" she asked shakily.

A wave of deja vu swept over Zero. Zero's eyes widened as he realized the same scenario that took place in his dreams were now replayed in real time. Grabbing Kizna by the shoulders, he fiercely said "we cannot go up there!"

"What's wrong?" Kizna stuttered out, getting a little scared by the look in Zero's eyes. "Zero, you're starting to scare me…"

"Listen, we cannot, under any circumstances go up there!" he whispered.

"Zero? I'm sure it's fine… it's near the teacher's rooms, it can't be that horrible," Kizna said, trying to go up to the third floor, but Zero was blocking her way.

"Kizna, I can't let you do this, you don't understand!" Zero said fiercely.

"Well then, explain it to me Zero!" Kizna said loudly. At that moment, the elevator decided to shake violently, sending them both over to the other side, hitting the frame of the elevator with a thud.

-----------------------

A/N:

I think I'll leave the story off over here…A little cliffhanger to keep you guys reading! J I hope I haven't let all of my readers down by taking such a long time to update. I'm really sorry for the delay but I had a really bad case of writers block, didn't get any time over the summer to write, and I'm now in college, and the work is crazy. I finally found some time and some ideas so I took some time off this past week to write another chapter.

Hopefully this will keep you guys satisfied until my next chapter comes out… I'm hoping it will be out in less than a month? I guess, start looking for it towards the middle of December, but I'm not promising anything because I'll have finals in the middle of December. But after the second week, I should have time to write cause I'll have about a month off for winter break.

I would like to thank all the people who reviewed the last chapter, I don't think I'll list all the names out this time but hopefully I haven't lost all my readers by not updating in such a long time.

Please review if possible; I would like to get some feedback after writing after such a long time!

-IcBlueDmoness


	17. 16: Room on the 3rd Floor

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, or whatever you celebrated, and have a happy new years!

Enjoy!

**Partner Or Lover Chapter 16: **The Room on the 3rd Floor

"Zero? I'm sure it's fine… it's near the teacher's rooms, it can't be that horrible," Kizna said, trying to go up to the third floor, but Zero was blocking her way.

"Kizna, I can't let you do this, you don't understand!" Zero said fiercely.

"Well then, explain it to me Zero!" Kizna said loudly. At that moment, the elevator decided to shake violently, sending them both over to the other side, hitting the frame of the elevator with a thud.

Kizna groaned from underneath Zero's body and slowly opened her eyes.

"What happened?" she asked as she and Zero untangled themselves and stood up once again.

"I'm not sure…" Zero said, a tone of uncertainty creeping into his voice. Frowning, Zero then took a quick look around the small elevator and then glanced back at Kizna.

Kizna now took this chance, when Zero was looking around the elevator, to swoop out from underneath his hold on her waist and push the button with a "3" on it. The elevator groaned and hummed to life and slowly lifted them up into the air. Zero was caught by surprise and glared at Kizna, slightly surprised at what she did. When the elevator finally stopped moving, the doors swung open with a slight grown and the two teens ran out of the unstable elevator.

"Remind me to take the stairs or another elevator down, instead of this one," Kizna told Zero as she stared at this elevator with suspicious eyes. Turning around, her pink hair whipping Zero in the cheek, she took off down the corridor in front of her, her curious eyes taking it all in.

"Wow! So this must be where all the staff resides. Interesting…." Turning to Zero with a mischievous look in her big orbs, she asked, "do you want to take a look at the teacher's rooms later?" Sighing while shaking his head, he followed the very hyper girl with his head low to the ground.

'_I hope this doesn't turn out the way I think it will…'_ Zero thought as he scanned the halls for any wandering souls.

"Aha! This looks interesting," Kizna shouted down the hallway. Zero's head shot up at the sound of her voice.

'_What in the world is she doing all the way down there so quickly?'_ he thought, frowning. He jogged up towards her and saw her staring at something. Craning his neck to take a look at what she was looking at, he stared at the great oak door in front of him with fearful eyes. '_No! This can't be it!'_ he thought fearfully, his blue orbs wide in surprise.

"Interesting… very interesting," Kizna muttered as she leaned down and examined every part of the door that she could get her hands on. Zero turned to look at the lock, which was placed on the wall on the side of the door.

Feeling something pulling at him, he walked towards the keypad as if something took a hold of his body and maneuvered him as they would a puppet. Zero lifted his hand and felt his eyes unfocused and focus back in a few seconds, but in those few seconds, his hands took over and quickly typed in an access code, which would open the great oak doors that stood in front of them. Turning to Kizna with a blank stare, he watched her expressions as she finally laid her eyes on the inside of the room.

"How'd you open the door?" the pink haired repairer asked her boyfriend with suspicious eyes.

"Uhh… well… I'm not sure," he said with a sheepish look on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. '_Of course I know how the door opened but I don't think I'll be telling her anytime soon… I want to figure this out myself before dragging everyone else in.'_

"You know you can tell me anything… right?" she asked as she walked closer to him and gripped him by the shoulders. She looked straight into his baby blue orbs, staring him down, right to his soul.

Zero gulped and tried to stare back but broke it off quickly by saying, "of course," with a smile after it.

Giving a small smile, Kizna turned around and walked into the room, Zero following her close behind. Glancing around the room for the cursed window, he turned his head to the right, left, up… but found no window. Confused, he turned around and took a look at the doors that lead to the room once again. '_Yes, this is the room… so where is the window?'_ he thought. He looked around the room once again, making sure not to over look one spot, but once again, he could not find a window.

'_What does this mean? Does this mean my dreams are not real? But Kizna led me here and used the same elevator just like in my dream…'_ Zero thought as he placed his hand under his chin, his eyebrows creasing together. He took a seat on the floor and closed his eyes as his brain tried to figure out this mystery.

'_Ok, well, apparently something's in my dreams are real, something's I guess are yet to happen? And other things do not happen at all. Let's see… in my latest…. Nightmare,_' he thought, carefully choosing his words, '_Kizna and the elevator scenario happened pretty much exactly the same. The corridor and the window parts have changed now… perhaps…'_ Zero held onto that chain of thought as his eyes snapped open and glanced at the opposite wall. He saw a small piece of paper stuck to the wall ahead of him. He ran across the wide, white colored room and went over to the other side. Glancing at Kizna, to see if she was still in the room, he took his time and examined the paper in front of him quietly.

Surprisingly, he was able to read the words on the paper just like in his dream. Apparently, or so his dream told him, that Kizna could not. To test it out, he called Kizna over.

"Hey Kizna! Come over here for a second. Take a look at this, I found something," he exclaimed. As his girlfriend walked over to him, Zero took a closer look at the paper in front of him and realized he could read what was written on it. '_So I guess this part of my dream is true too…'_ "Well now I can find out what really should have happened in my dream," Zero muttered under his breath.

"What dream?" Kizna asked. Zero jumped and turned around. He found that Kizna was standing right behind him when he muttered that out loud.

"Uhh…" he started as he rubbed the back of his head. "Nothing… never mind, I found something more interesting than my dreams…" he stated as he laughed nervously. Kizna shot him a weird glance and looked at the wall in front of them.

"Interesting," she said as she peered into the wall in front of her. "What is it?" she asked, looking slightly confused at the words written onto the paper posted on the wall. "I guess we can't figure it out since probably no one can read this…" she sighed.

"Um, Kizna, don't freak out, but I can read what it says…" Zero said as he took a quick glance at Kizna to see her reaction.

She turned to face him with wide eyes, shocked at first, but then her cat like curiosity settled in and she asked, "What does it say then?"

"Well, I think it's an old language of some sort, but somehow I am able to read it… Maybe we can show Clay this room and he can figure out what kind of language it is…"

"Maybe it's an old language from your old home, so that's how you know what it says?" Kizna asked shrugging.

"Well, it gives a list of numbers and words follow them. Like, the first number on it says ' 1: Mansion,' the second one says '2: Amusement Park,' the third one, '3: Coral Reefs.'" Zero then looked at the number pad next to the plastic covered paper. "Do we have to punch these numbers into the pad or something?" he asked Kizna.

Kizna looked just as confused as Zero, maybe even more. "I have no clue…" she said, shrugging once again.

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out," Zero said as he lifted a finger up, preparing to push a button on the keypad. He pushed the button with a number 1 on it and waited for something to happen. "Huh?" he muttered, staring at the keypad, slightly confused. He tried again. Nothing happened.

"Maybe if you try pressing the green button?" Kizna offered. "What does that button say?"

"It says 'enter'." Zero read. "Ok, maybe your right," he submitted. Once again, he pushed the button reading 1 and then pushed the enter button. A whooshing sound filled their ears and echoed through the room. The two teenagers turned around to look at the room and saw that it started to change right before their every eyes.

"What's going on?" Kizna asked with wide eyes glued to the various walls of the room.

"I have no clue!" Zero shouted back as he too continued to stare at the mutating room. Colors began flooding the walls, images began to come up from the floor, trees came into view… and finally, the noises suddenly stopped and the two teens took another look around. Instead of the previously empty room, this room was now full of new items for their eager eyes to feast upon.

"What is this place?" Kizna asked as she took a tentative step forward.

The words on the paper came back to his mind as Zero muttered "Mansion," under his breath. "It's a mansion Kizna," he told her. "Amazing…" The chocolate haired boy took a few steps forward and approached the looming stone building trying to hold onto the last of his nerves. He placed a hand on the outer wall of the mansion only to feel a tingling feeling as his arm passed right through the wall. "What happened?" he asked out loud, trying to regain his balance.

"I think it's a hologram," Kizna said behind him. Zero jumped and then reprimanded her.

"Don't keep scaring me like that!" he said as he grabbed his chest, trying to ease his heart. After his heart had finally calmed down a bit, he turned to the pink haired repairer and asked, "How do you know it is a hologram?"

"Well, when you tried to touch the stone wall," she imitated his earlier movements and placed a hand on the wall, but it went through instead. "You know it's a hologram if you don't feel anything solid there. A hologram is basically a bunch of lights and images that are projected from a certain place to create bigger images like this. So it's not real. I guess it's showing how a 'mansion' would look like…" she said as she took another look around the place.

Nodding, Zero took in all that she said. Glancing around, he spotted an entrance and then said, "hey look, there's a door over there… let's go check it out!" he finished as he pulled Kizna along behind him. The grand door that led into the mansion opened with a 'creaking noise as Zero twisted the big brass doorknob and pushed the door open. Both candidate and repairer stared with wide eyes as the inside of the mansion was revealed to their eager eyes.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Zero asked as he stepped inside. Both teenagers then started to explore the mansion together. They took on the grand staircase up; it led them up to the first floor from the foyer of the mansion. The weird thing was, as they placed their feet on the first step of the staircase, the whole hologram shifted downwards just a bit, into the ground, yet revealed more of the first floor to them. As they climbed, or more like stomped on the floor, the hologram kept moving down into the ground and revealed more and more of the upper floors of the mansion.

"That's weird, but then again it's a hologram, we can't physically climb the stairs I guess. But to create such a thing that could react to a person's needs is amazing," Kizna said. "The hologram moves down as we go up the stairs to reveal more of the upper floors to us, as if we were really climbing the stairs. I wonder if it does the same thing if we took the stairs down to the basement or something," she said as she looked around the upper floors. They explored some more, basically until they had covered the mansion from head to toe.

Walking out of the mansion, Zero exclaimed, "That was amazing! Wish I had one of those houses for myself!"

"Maybe we can make one," Kizna said slyly, as she hugged Zero's arm to her chest. She turned her head to the side to get a better look at him. Zero's eyes widened at her remark and he started to blush a bit.

"We'll see," he mumbled under his breath as he kept his eyes glued to the ground. Kizna just snickered at his reaction.

"Let's go see what's next on that board," said Kizna as she dragged her boyfriend over to the wall again.

"Ok, well, number two is an amusement park," Zero read.

"An amusement park? What is that? A place that keeps you amused all the time?" Kizna said laughing. Zero shrugged.

"Guess we'll find out!" As Zero got ready to push the button with a 2 on it, Kizna stopped him.

"Wait… I think I hear someone out in the hallway."

"I don't hear a thing. How can you?" Zero asked, his eyebrow raised. Kizna just pointed to her cat ears. Zero smiled sheepishly and then said, "maybe we'd better get out of here then."

"How do you turn it off?" Kizna asked.

"Well, let's see…" Zero skimmed the board that was in front of him for any hints. At the bottom of the page, it read, 'to view any of these places, press the number followed by the enter key. To turn it off, press the exit key.'

Zero pushed the exit key and the room went back to normal; the walls were covered with white once again, and the room was empty.

"Let's get out of here," Zero whispered as both of them dashed towards the door. Kizna placed an ear to the door to see where the person she had heard earlier was. She heard the footsteps once again, but this time a little closer than before.

Zero pushed a button on the wall, on the side of the door, and the doors swooshed open once again. Sticking his head out, he looked both ways and saw someone approaching from the left. That person walked into a near by room and Zero took this chance to get away.

"Let's go, the person who was coming went into a room just now. We can make it to the elevator before he comes back I think," he told Kizna as he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. They ran down the hallway until the elevator came back into their view.

"I am not getting back onto that…thing…" Kizna uttered as she looked around for another way down. Zero sighed and glanced back behind him. The stranger was no where to be seen so Zero then started looking for another staircase or an elevator. Running down an adjacent hallway, he spotted a small stairwell that led right down to the second floor.

"Kizna, I found a stairwell. Come on," Zero panted as he ran back to the pink haired girl. Both of them took the stairs and went back down to the second floor, eager to tell their friends what they had found.

--

A/N: I was surprised at that amount of reviews I received for the last chapter… 1 review! And surprisingly, I now have over 550 hits for this story…

My friend has informed me that now has this new rule that you can't thank your reviewers in your story, but have to email them separately, and because of that, many people have stopped reviewing… Or maybe it's just that I didn't update in so long and people are mad at me? Whatever the reason may be, I would really appreciate the reviews and even if I have to respond to people by email, if you leave me your email address, I'll be glad to talk to you over email.

I know this was a very short chapter compared to the last one, but I did not have much time to write this. I will probably get the next chapter out in a week or two so look for it then.

Reviews would be appreciated!


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